


All is Found

by MoonlightxStars



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Anxiety, Body Dysmorphia, Brief mention of possible miscarriage, Couples Counseling, Depression, Domestic, F/M, Family, Gen, Infertility, Post canon, Sibling Bonding, Therapy, Trying To Conceive, Unaddressed Trauma, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Vomiting, bad communication skills, birth scene, blupbabies, dry gagging, more to come - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 61,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28416678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightxStars/pseuds/MoonlightxStars
Summary: Things had been good for a while. This she knew. She knew that things were going well. She felt it any time she talked to one of her family members, knew it in the way she was no longer waking up in a cold sweat from nightmares. She knew it because of how she felt more like herself than she had in so long, and had been feeling that way for over a year now. She was breathing easier. It no longer felt as though there was something over her face as she struggled for breath. There was a feeling in her hands, which she hadn’t felt during the first four and a half years she had her body back. And when she held his hand, it no longer felt numb and cold. There was a feeling between them both. The familiar warmth that she had yearned to feel. They were once again in-sync with one another, like how they were before, but it also wasn’t like how it was before. It was a newer feeling that felt reminiscent of before. It was stronger, almost. The flame and passion that was already so bright was now blinding and growing higher and higher any time she felt the small squeeze in her hand, or a kiss was pressed to her temple. Any time she woke up beside him, or made eye contact at him during a debriefing.She was finally happy again.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

Things had been good for a while. This she knew. She knew that things were going well. She felt it any time she talked to one of her family members, knew it in the way she was no longer waking up in a cold sweat from nightmares. She knew it because of how she felt more like herself than she had in so long, and had been feeling that way for over a year now. She was breathing easier. It no longer felt as though there was something over her face as she struggled for breath. There was a feeling in her hands, which she hadn’t felt during the first four and a half years she had her body back. And when she held his hand, it no longer felt numb and cold. There was a feeling between them both. The familiar warmth that she had yearned to feel. They were once again in-sync with one another, like how they were before, but it also wasn’t like how it was before. It was a newer feeling that felt reminiscent of before. It was stronger, almost. The flame and passion that was already so bright was now blinding and growing higher and higher any time she felt the small squeeze in her hand, or a kiss was pressed to her temple. Any time she woke up beside him, or made eye contact at him during a debriefing. 

She was finally happy again. More than that though, she felt a sense of euphoria. This was what she had been looking for for so long. She had a quick glimpse of it when she was released from her prison and when she was finally back in her own flesh. She felt it for six months after that. This bliss of being rejoined with her family. Her and Barry making plans together. Talks about expanding their family followed suit. She quickly agreed to it and they started almost immediately, after a month into her new body. She was eager, she wanted this. She had been wanting this for so long, and it was the perfect time to do it, right? They were together again. No need to talk about what happened, because that was all behind them and she simply wanted to forget that it  _ did _ happen in the first place. Besides, they were just picking up from where they left off. They had started trying when they entered this world, seeing it as their permanent residence. Obviously those plans were scrapped pretty quickly.

The cracks that had laid dormant for so long began to spread right then and there though. With each negative test that they got back. The cracks were small at the time easily overshadowed by their joy at the idea of getting a positive result. After a year of trying, though, they were becoming more and more noticeable. She switched her method by tracking when she ovulated. 

Things started getting a bit more dispassionate between them as they tried that method for two more years. No longer giggly and exuberant over making a baby, it just turned into a routine. She’d check when she would ovulate and then tell him to take his pants off and get to it. Not very romantic, she knew that. But both of them were feeling the cracks seep into the vase and they could now see dribbles of water start to come through the cracks.

They weren’t talking. Well, not about the things they should be talking about. They danced around the subject like a dancing pair that was far out of practice. Stumbling over each other's feet with one slip up that had the other one biting their tongue. The cracks continued to deepen into ugly scars. They switched to IVF. 

They tried that for a year and a half, each time coming back with a negative result. More injections, more needles poking through her once scarless fresh body. She thought she would prefer it if they were arguing with one another instead of being tight-lipped and pretending what had happened to them didn’t happen, that everything was okay and they could just slip back into who they were before.

And then one day, she thought she felt it. Something had changed and suddenly the cracks were very sloppily fixing one other. It was an imperfect fix. Looking back at it, it wasn’t even a fix. It was just the vase wrapped in some bandaids, attempting to hold everything together as much as it could before the adhesive wore off. 

She had felt it in the way her pants weren’t fitting her as well anymore and that she was feeling sicker than normal. If she had looked at this with a healed brain, she would’ve taken in account that she had been stress eating more, and that she wasn’t getting the proper amount of sleep. But her broken mind saw it as a evident sign. Her period hadn’t shown up, even though she had always been irregular since she magicked the uterus up in the first place, and it had been even more irregular since she started getting stressed about conceiving. 

Still, the bubble of hope was there and she felt that the band aids were becoming waterproof. She had raced to the pharmacy that very day with the hope becoming more and more impossible to quell. This was it. After all this time, she was finally going to have what they both had been wanting.

Only to have a moment of denial when she saw the negative glaring at her. It couldn’t be right. False negatives were a common occurrence. Perhaps it was too early? Maybe the line was just so pale that she could barely see it. She cast detect life.

She felt herself crumple. There was nothing there. She didn’t know if she screamed or not, but she heard the door open and in her watery gaze she saw someone she didn’t recognize. They stood at the doorway unmoving. Their features were muddled as they just stood there in the doorway, frozen, not knowing what to do with the unhinged woman on the floor clutching the pregnancy test in her hand. 

Another figure appeared out of nowhere, shoving the other person out of the way and going to her immediately. He took the test from her death grip and just hugged her so tightly that she felt small. Her breathing was now so foreign to her that she felt so separate from the woman on the floor screaming at all the injustices in the world. She couldn’t feel the hand trying to coax her to relax, nor could she comprehend what the person was trying to tell her in the first place. 

If she had a clearer mind, she would’ve seen all the red flags. She would’ve recognized her own husband staring at her, his eyes unfocused, not recognizing the woman before him as his own wife. Even after more than 100 years seeing each other and memorizing every detail that the other had, memorizing what the other felt like and how their gaze felt, in that moment they couldn’t even recognize each other. 

The weak band aids had lost all their adhesive and fell apart as the water began to gush out like a waterfall. Maybe they hadn’t been band aids at all though. Maybe it was just poorly tied toilet paper masquerading as band aids.

After that day, they were sent to therapy. Not really against their will. They had both been so numb for so long that they just felt like they were coasting along. Besides, it’s not like the outside world knew. They were heroes, and everyone knew that heroes don't have breakdowns. They survived in a ship for a hundred years with no permanent fixtures but the seven of them. Their brains were made out of steel. Nothing could hurt them. They were all so happy. They were the Seven Birds who had finally landed. What did they have to be hurt about? And out of the seven, two were made of love for the other. They were the perfect couple. No problems ever arose with them because they were couple goals. They posed so nicely for WizardWeekly. Nevermind that their smiles never reached their eyes. No one ever looked that closely, anyway.

She remembered her first day and how long it had taken her to open up. She felt like a shell of who she used to be. The person who she loved so much was slipping away from her, and she felt it. It was so obvious and in-her-face that she didn’t even know how to handle the emotion. She couldn’t feel her hands at all. She couldn’t feel her face. She felt like she was somehow drunk, but she knew she wasn’t. She had quit drinking to increase her chances of getting pregnant. Still, everything around her felt unreal. She couldn’t feel the couch underneath her body. She felt like she was suddenly a lich and she was looking at her comatose body sitting rigidly on the couch, not feeling how her fingers dug into her hand so hard that day that she had broke the skin. She hadn’t even registered the blood until Taako had brought it up to her when she walked out of her appointment, feeling as though something else was guiding her body. 

Her therapist, a tiefling named Ash with dark purple skin and piercing eyes, looked at her patiently, making notes every so often in their notebook. 

It was on one of these days that she had a clearer mind. She had looked at them, pen flying across their page, immersed in something she couldn’t quite see. 

“What are you doing?” Her voice sounded like she had swallowed nails on the way over. She could’ve sworn that her neck was bleeding with nails poking out of it every which way, making her look like some sort of deranged creature instead of the elf woman she knew she was. 

The tiefling looked up slowly at her, dark eyes feeling like they were peering into her soul. They slowly shifted their head to one side, looking at her ever so patiently. 

“Sketching,” they responded in a pleasantly high voice. It was smooth like honey and didn’t have the nails that plagued her throat. 

“What are you sketching?” Again, her voice hurt her throat. The nails were digging into her even more, embedding themselves deeper and deeper until she couldn’t dislodge them any longer. She tried to swallow, but everything felt too sharp. There was no way she could clear them all out. 

Her therapist continued their sketch for a moment longer before putting down their pad and folding their hands on their lap, smiling gently at her. 

“I find that sketching is a nice way to help clear the mind. Pen to paper are rather good methods to convey how we feel, whether that be through music, or literature, or even in drawing. It’s also a good way to open up slowly. I have a feeling you know what I mean.”

A distant memory flashed before her. A stage, sweaty palms, the feeling of euphoric bliss over taking her as she gripped onto someone whom she loved so very much. A conversation starter. Music. A song that conveyed how much she loved someone and how much he loved her back. Her hands started to lose the feeling she had gotten back that day. They were never going to be the same after this. Were they going to be forever distant with one another? The bed felt so big and cold when they refused to be pressed up against each other. They hadn’t cuddled in bed with one another in a year.

She and Ash didn’t talk for the rest of the session. They had picked up their pad again and begun sketching. Lup sat there, her fingers twitching for the instrument that had allowed her to confess all those years ago.

She brought in her old violin into the session the next time she went. She typically went at least three times a week. It was to keep her out of the house. Barry went the days she didn’t go. 

She didn’t play it, necessarily. She just sat there staring at the case, her numb fingers fidgeting a little bit for the familiar strings. She was scared, though. She was a different person the last time she had played her violin. More whole, more herself. Before she trapped herself in that place for ten years.

Ash continued to sketch on their pad as Lup stared at the case all session long. 

It continued like this for a while. She would bring in her violin case and stare at it. All the while, Ash would sketch something, never pressuring her to talk, just being a comforting presence in the room with her. The truth was, Lup didn’t know what to play. She couldn’t piece it together. She kept thinking she would, but every time she would come up blank, never knowing the right tune to start on.

Then one day, she had a rough morning. She woke up from the nightmare of being in that place again. The night light hadn’t been turned on the night before. She thought she had, but apparently not. What made it even worse was that Barry wasn’t in the room with her, and so for a split second she thought she was back in there. She was screaming and sobbing blindly until Kravitz came running in, trying to comfort her the best way he could. He scheduled an emergency meeting with Ash, and suddenly, she felt like there was something there.

At first, it started out like all sessions. Ash would sketch on their pad, and she would stare at the case feeling blank and hopeless, and by the gods her marriage was crumpling right before her eyes, her husband hadn’t even slept in their room last night. He must be having better luck with his therapy and was just now realizing that she was no good for him. She was broken and too messed up for any hope. Even babies knew she was unfit. 

She didn’t have control over her body. Suddenly she was whipping out her violin and playing it in its out-of-tune glory. It was grating to hear. Her violin hadn’t seen much use in the years she had been back in her own body. Still, she played furiously, the hairs on her bow coming undone little by little as she attacked the strings. She didn’t know what had come over her. She was just furiously playing, putting everything out there. Being on a ship for 100 years, having to fight something for so long only to have it stop so suddenly, how she was gone for more than ten years from her family’s lives. How her brother and everyone else she held dear forgot her. How she didn’t know where she stood anymore since everyone was so different from where she left them. How she couldn’t communicate with her own husband who she loved so desperately it hurt. How she was basically infertile even though she thought she had done everything right from magicking her own fucking uterus to taking all of the prenatal vitamins and taking her injections on time every day for a year and a half. How she was way too broken inside and she was making everyone exhausted with her constant neediness. How she didn’t even feel real in her own godsdamned body anymore–

A string slapped her across the face in the midst of her playing, stopping her from her craze. She was breathing hard, eyes wide as she laid everything out there like that. Ash looked at her with patient eyes and nodded sagely as they gestured to the couch. 

“I see,” they said, and for once Lup thought she heard complete and utter understanding. “Please do take a seat, Lup. Let’s start small, all right?”

Lup nodded and took a seat, feeling a little more grounded than before. After she sat on the couch, she couldn’t stop herself from talking. 

This continued for ten months. Sometimes they would talk about things, sometimes Lup would play her violin until a string broke, other times they just sat in comfortable silence as Lup took in the exercises that Ash taught her. Lup was feeling better. Not good, but her own personal cracks were healing. She was still getting around to talking to her brother about things, still having those days where she felt so distant from her body that she didn’t know if she was even herself. But the exercises helped her. Her and her husband’s relationship was still strained, though. 

It was on a particularly strained day that Lup went into her therapy session and all she could play was a mournful piece with so much longing, wishing her duet partner could hear her piece so he could join in with her. It was searching for him out in the void, but she knew that he wouldn’t be able to hear her piece. Her heart was breaking more and more, apologizing to him for making him wait so long, apologizing for going off the deep end, for not talking, for letting things build until seemingly nothing could be fixed. Apologizing for shrugging off his touch after the second round of IVF didn’t work. For having to see her break down in their bathroom that day, looking deranged. 

She was so lost in her sorrow that she thought that her mind was making up the distant piano that matched her sorrowful ballad. Whispering to her how he forgave her and that  _ he _ was sorry for not coming to her sooner, for matching her in the fact he went off the deep end as well, for not holding her in bed anymore even though she was clearly crying. He was sorry that he couldn’t comfort her, for not being able to recognize her that day. He was sorry for returning to how he was in the beginning of the 100 years. 

She hadn’t realized she had been crying and stopped playing until she felt arms around her, holding her tightly as she began to feel tears on her shoulder. They rocked back and forth with each other, clinging onto each other like nothing else mattered than this moment right here right now.

There was still a long way to go, but there were small steps they were both taking. Ash had referred them to a couple's therapist that they could go to on their one free day off from therapy. They gladly took it as they reached out to one another for the first time in what felt like forever. 

* * *

There were times where she felt scared, her heart bursting out of her chest and she couldn’t breathe, but if she woke up from a nightmare, she no longer had to be alone as she clung to herself to feel something. Barry would wake up and wouldn’t even hesitate to wrap her up in his arms as she shook violently. He would murmur things in her ear as he coaxed her through her exercises. 

If he woke up suddenly, searching blindly for her in bed, she’d wake up and put herself right in his arms, kiss him gently on the tip of his nose, holding his hand as she rubbed his hand with her thumb. She would whisper his own exercises as she peppered him gently with butterfly kisses all over his face. 

They would start to talk after these attacks, keeping close to each other, tracing patterns on each other’s skin, legs tangled up with one another. Some nights they stayed up until dawn just talking about things, their anxieties, their persisting fears, still feeling like they were completely undone from their experiences. Still, it was calming to talk about things again. Holding each other again with little to no hesitation was like the first whiff of the spring air. Things were still clunky together, their pieces right now were still a little too big for one another, but their cracks were healing. Someone had finally started to cast mending.

They continued to go to their separate therapy sessions and to couples counseling. Their therapies were cut back to one day a week instead of three, and if they needed anything then they could always schedule an appointment with Ash. 

One night, Lup couldn’t sleep, and it wasn’t from her usual nightmare of being back in the umbrastaff. It pained her to think about for too long, rubbing her abdomen just slightly, hoping for anything. She had really thought her dream had come true this time. She had really thought. 

She sighed and got out of bed, careful to not disturb Barry as she turned on their lamp. He didn’t even flinch as the light casted a soft glow around their room. She smiled down at him, caressing his face, heart melting as he absentmindedly leaned into her touch, shifting his lips to kiss her hand. She normally kept a journal for these sorts of dreams. Documenting them all away, filling up the journal before setting it on fire. She said it wasn’t her way of trying to forget. She would always reread the dreams documented, smiling tearily at them before letting them go through their own funeral pyre. She remembered some of them. Some dreams, she and Barry had up to nine kids, all racing around them with wild laughs, faces covered in dirt from play. Barry would sometimes be holding a small baby, elvish features more evident than their siblings.

Barry would bounce the baby on his leg, causing the small one to giggle profusely. Two more half elf kids would run up to him, clasping their hands in one so tightly that Lup was afraid they had glued themselves to each other. They’d boop the baby on the nose, laughing uncontrollably together in that happy tune. They’d suddenly turn and look at her, their faces muddled, but still, she knew that they were twins. She felt it deep within her that she was so sure that she knew these children. They’d stick their tongues out at her before running to join in whatever she was doing, peering at what she was chopping. The other six children were too busy playing to pay attention to their three other siblings.

It was a dream like that which had woke her up. However, instead of the baby and the other six children being there, it was only the two who she was so sure were twins. They were at the kitchen table eating breakfast and had turned when they heard her walking down the stairs. Their faces broke out in a smile as they raced over, giggling and jumping and filled with way too much energy for this early in the morning. They greeted her enthusiastically, their attention shifting to her abdomen as they began to touch her belly gently. She looked down, realizing her belly was growing with a new life, presumably the baby that she had seen so often. They giggled as Barry made his way over, his features sharper than the twins before her. He greeted her with a kiss, rubbing her belly, greeting the unborn child there. 

Lup had woke up sobbing, clutching her stomach, wishing that the dreams were real, wishing that somehow, someway, those kids could come true. 

She found a journal that had a few pages left in it. She’d write down her dream, reread the others, and then send it off. She found her pen as she sat down in the desk chair, opening the journal as she began to write. 

She was so immersed in her writing that she didn’t even realize someone had come up behind her until she felt the soft kiss on her temple and the hands massaging her tensed shoulders. 

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” She sniffled a little bit, capping her pen and closing her journal. She would finish it once Barry was asleep again. 

“I heard you crying,” he murmured, pressing another kiss to her temple. “Tell me what’s going on.”

She sighed a little bit, squeezing his hand. They were going to communicate. Barry asked her what was going on, and she wasn’t going to hold it back and have the cracks reopen. Barry would do the same if she had asked him what was going on. She steeled herself as she reopened her journal, allowing him to peer over her shoulder. He grabbed his spare glasses from off the desk and placed them on his face, tired eyes focusing on her messy half print half script handwriting. 

His lips were pursed in a thin line for a while as he nodded before closing her journal.

“How often do you have these dreams?”

“They were really bad in the beginning. Every other night really. They’ve calmed down though. This is the first time in a month that I’ve had one.”

He nodded as he sat on the edge of their bed, just thinking. She rose from her chair, sitting on the bed next to him as she put her head on his shoulder. He tucked her in snugly beside him. They sat like that for a bit in comfortable silence, Lup being lulled by his breathing. 

“Do you want to try again?” 

The question caught her off guard. She startled a bit, jerking her head off his shoulder, but not pulling too far away from him. Did she want to try again? Well, if she was perfectly honest, no, she didn’t. Jumping into it destroyed them the last time. The stress of not conceiving and then having all of the unresolved trauma that they both had….they were just coming around to it. They still needed time. She didn’t want to bring a child into anything like this if they were to get lucky this time. They were still relearning each other. They couldn’t bring another living being into their lives at this moment, no matter how her dreams haunted her. She was still trying to pick up her pieces, but she was thinking somewhat more clearly now and she couldn’t do that to a child. She just couldn’t. 

“No,” she answered, nestling back into him. Barry sighed, relief evident in his body as he rubbed her back. “At least not yet. I want to wait until we’re good, you know? If that’s what you want, of course. You could’ve changed your mind about having kids.”

“I haven’t changed my mind about it. I still want them, you know? But yeah. I want to wait until we’re good too.”

Lup sighed against him, burying herself closer to him. “We really should’ve done that before, shouldn’t we?”

“I guess so. I think we were both on the same page that somehow having a baby was going to fix everything? I don’t know. It sounds really bad now and I’m sure we would’ve realized how awful that sounded if we were, you know–”

“Yeah.” Lup sighed, still clinging onto him, pressing her forehead on his shoulder. “Gods, I really did convince myself that. It sounds like something my parents would do and that’s why they had Taako and I. But I had somehow convinced myself that we were different because we’re Lup and Barry.”

Barry looked at her, smiling softly at her, the corner of his eyes crinkling, showing off the first genuine smile she had seen in so long. Her heart ached to press a kiss to them, telling him that she loved his smile and that she would never take it for granted again. 

“Barry and Lup. I think I was in the same mindset. It didn’t help that the tabloids were trying to predict when we would have a baby.” 

“Yeah. The idea that two of the seven were having a baby….gods that sucked.” She had remembered seeing those tabloids at the supermarket announcing how she and Barry were  _ finally _ expecting. They put fake quotes from them, Barry’s counterpart always announcing how he was so excited to have a baby. Apparently Taako was getting the nursery ready in these fictional universes. Sometimes they’d be announcing that the baby was a boy and how ‘overjoyed’ Angus was to be getting a little cousin and would teach him how to be a detective or some shit. Other times it was a girl and it would be about how they were so excited to finally add another girl to the mix. Each time Lup had to dig her nails into her palm and try to ignore them. At least, more so back then. She still saw them on occasion, along with other things saying that Lucretia had found the woman of her dreams (Lucretia had called her up to laugh about it saying how she’s very fine being single, thank you) along with Kravitz and Taako breaking up every so often. Apparently Kravitz was getting the cats. Magnus had a secret life that intrigued any buyer to purchase. Some of them even had quizzes of which of the seven birds they would end up with. 

It was all to get people to buy, that made sense, and now seeing the tabloids of her and Barry announcing a new arrival didn’t pain her as much. It still did. Gods did it hurt, but it was a dull pain now. When sales were low, most of the time they just put out something outrageous about them all. It kept people buying. 

Barry hummed in agreement, rubbing small circles in her back. 

“Ma was wondering if you would like to visit her at some point?” Now that was enticing. Lup had heard a lot about Marlena while they were living on the StarBlaster, and every story Barry recalled lived up to the expectation. She was the kindest woman that Lup had ever met, treated Lup with so much care and fondness even if she was grumpy from the IVF injections. She had never asked when they would give her grandchildren. Instead, she would just gush over how she was so happy that her Barry had finally found someone and how over the moon she was that he was so happy. Lup cherished the woman with all her being. 

“That would be nice. When are you thinking?” It would give them a good break. Between reaper business and therapy, they hadn’t been able to really visit Marlena as much as they wanted to. 

“She was really hoping we'd be willing to swing down some time next summer. She said her house is going through some renovations and they won’t be ready until then.” Lup hummed as she toyed with Barry’s ring finger, playing with his wedding band.

“That gives us plenty of time to, you know, get better.”

“Yeah it does, doesn’t it?” He rocked her a little bit, taking her hand that was playing with his ring and pressing a gentle kiss to it. “I love you.”

Maybe it was because they hadn’t said it in so long without it feeling strained or pressured out of them. Maybe it was because Barry looked so genuine as he said it. They were coming back together, slowly but surely. She could feel the tears start to prickle and saw that he shared the sentiment as Lup reached up to his face and cupped his cheek. 

“I love you, too.”

They were getting better. 

* * *

And so their lives continued. They had Candlenights where they weren’t across the room from the other. They talked more than before, relearning each other and taking everything as slowly as the other was letting it. They continued to go to therapy. They learned how to be a couple again, but also how to be themselves. Lup started to cook more with Taako, cracking jokes and establishing their new normal. Lup and Barry went on dates more, taking Angus out and about just like they used to when he was younger, before their trauma started to catch up to them. 

Their work performance improved as well, so much so that the Raven Queen took notice and congratulated them on a job well done. Life was returning to normal. 

During the summer, Lup and Barry went to Tusun to visit Marlena and to check out her renovations. Apparently that included an extension of her house, a little section dedicated to Lup and Barry, equipped with their own library, bedroom, and kitchenette. It had been so thoughtful that Lup had broken down right there and gave her the biggest hug she had ever given her. 

During their third night there, she and Barry got intimate again. It had been so long since the last time she enjoyed herself with it.They had treated it like a chore for so long that it was just no longer enjoyable. When they went on IVF, they had been practically celibate, not wanting to engage in anything that could potentially set the other off. But finally, finally there was something there again. The fire was once again burning, and it was burning brighter than ever. 

By the end of their trip, both of them were just so much more relaxed, as if they had just fallen in love with the other all over again. The mending spell had solidified around itself and the vase was once again whole.

* * *

A few months after the visit with Marlena, Taako started to get weird on her. He was constantly looking at her like she was about to explode, or freaking out any time she got near the litter box or ordered a caffeinated coffee. She had a feeling it was because she hadn’t been feeling very well, so he was just trying to protect her from getting even sicker. She really didn’t know, but it was getting on her nerves.

She talked to Ash about it when Taako had freaked out about her ordering a glass of wine while they were at dinner. She knew that she hadn’t really drank in years, but she could handle one glass of wine, couldn’t she? She had pulled him aside after he turned her wine to water and explained to him she really didn’t appreciate whatever the fuck he was doing. It was bad enough that the Raven Queen was barring her from entering the Astral Plane, and suddenly she couldn’t turn into her reaper form, but now her brother was going to dictate what she drank? No thank you.

“Do you know why he would do this?” Ash asked as they sketched. 

At a loss, Lup just shrugged. 

“It’s honestly beyond me. Taako’s always been over dramatic, so maybe it’s just that? But it feels weird.” She raked a hand through her hair. “Also, update on my job, Boss still won’t let me in.”

“How very strange,” Ash murmured, nodding their head just slightly. “Huh.”

“Huh what?”

“Do you think she has any reason to be doing this?” Their hand danced in a circle before putting their pen on the paper and began sketching again. 

“I mean...I don’t think so. Maybe She thinks it’s been going too well and She’s waiting for the other shoe to drop and trying to do early damage control.”

“I see.” They murmured, looking up at her for the first time this session, their dark eyes filled to the brim with curiosity. “And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Yes, what about you, dear? Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop?” Lup thought on this for a bit. Sure, things had been going well, but she didn’t think it was too well. She and Barry talked. They were closer than ever, really. She went out more with her friends, she no longer felt remorse at the tabloids, her nightmares had decreased since three years ago, and she felt….more here. She felt more together, like her bonds had finally managed to calm themselves. They were strong. She felt that in the very core of her being. 

“You know? I’m not. I haven’t felt so...I don’t think relaxed is the right word here, but...whole, maybe? It’s been going on for a while now. Probably since the trip Barry and I took to visit his mom. I just feel...complete, less like a ghost trying to imitate Lup Taaco Bluejeans, ya know?”

Ash nodded, a kind smile on their features. 

“I know the feeling.” They put down their pad and paper and looked at her. “You’ve made excellent progress, Lup, and I’m sure it’s just going to go uphill from here.” 

Lup nodded to them and stood up, stretching. 

“I’ll call you if I need anything.”

“Of course. My door is always open for you and Barry. Have a good day, dear.” Lup nodded and bid them a quick see ya, going out in the hall and breathing in deeply. Gods, she hadn’t felt so good in a while. She might’ve thrown up that morning, but talking to Ash was always nice and it helped put her life into perspective. 

She went home with a little more skip in her step. It was going to be a good day.

* * *

It had been a week since that appointment. Lup hadn’t gone to her session earlier that week since she felt fine. Things were returning to normal. For one, the Queen had sent her paperwork so she could still do her job since she was still barred from entering the Astral Plane. Not the best, but whatever. Barry and Kravitz were on a bounty that could take the whole weekend. She felt a little left out, but it also gave her time to hang out with Taako when he got home. 

She was doing work for RQ when a plastic fantasy CVS bag landed on her desk with a thud. She looked up to see Taako standing there with his arms crossed.

“Do me a favor?”

“Depends on what it is?” She looked at the bag. “Are there body parts in here because I have to report nefarious activity, it’s my job.”

“Wow, narc, your own fucking brother, but ew, no. I need you to take a test for me.”

“I’m not committing academic fraud for you again, Tikkity Tok. I’m pretty sure that the evocation professor knew it was me taking the test, but he didn’t have solid proof. Also, we’re like old as shit now and you run a school. Be a role model or something," she chastised half-heartedly. 

Taako rolled his eyes and pulled out the object in the bag, plopping it on her paperwork. “That. I need you to take that.”

Lup looked at him and then at the object on her desk. All of a sudden, she could feel her heart in her ears as she was once again back in that bathroom with the negative test after she had been so sure. Okay, deep breath in. Hold it. Look around. Countdown from ten. Okay. Slowly begin to release, still your hands. You’re fine. It’s okay. 

When she felt calm enough, she looked at Taako and just shook her head. 

“I can’t take that.”

“Lup, I know, I know this is the worst way to do it, but it’s the only way. Please just...please.” Taako pleaded, rubbing her shoulders apologetically. She could be mad at him, she knew she could be. But she didn’t want to be. She took another deep breath. 

“Barry and I can’t get pregnant, Taako. Besides, we’re planning on doing something when he gets back.” She shoved the pregnancy test from her desk like a cat and a water cup. 

“Could you at least do this for me? To calm down my nerves?”

“Why do you think I’m pregnant anyway? And like, after how many times me and Barry tried to conceive for four and a half years? What makes you think that now is any different? Also if you’re going through our garbage to see if I’ve been getting my period, then gross. You know I’m irregular, and it’s super normal for me to not get it for months at a time.”

“Ew, no, Lup, that’s gross, I’m not sifting through you and Barold’s gross ass garbage.” He sighed and pinched his nose. “Look, take it, don’t take it, whatever floats your boat, Lulu. But, as your loving and caring twin brother who actually likes seeing you and Barry get all gushy again, I think it’s in your best interest to take it.”

“Aww, you like it when Barry and I get all gushy? I’ll tell him you said that so we can be grosser.” She smirked at him, folding her arms over her chest.

“Eugh, gross. Fine, counterattack, I’ll get Krav in on this and then we can duke it out to see who’s grosser.” He flicked her ear before leaving the room, then paused suddenly at the doorway. “But, seriously, Lup, just think about it.”

He left the room without much flourish, leaving Lup with the plastic bag and the pregnancy test box just sitting on the floor. Fuck. She pulled out her stone of farspeech and put in a frequency she knew well at this point.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Ash? I know this is supes last minute but I think I need to talk to you.”

* * *

Lup had been pacing the floor of Ash’s room. She didn’t fear for the carpet as much anymore, since she was sure Ash was used to this. She and Barry both tended to pace a lot, especially when thinking of what to say. For Ash’s part, they just sat in their usual spot, sketching away on their pad, perfectly patient for her to start. 

“So….Taako came home with a pregnancy test and asked me to take it, right?” Ash just dipped their head slightly, continuing their sketch. “And….yeah, I’ve been off, I’ll admit that. But….not that weird? During the time I got sick my nephew, you know him? Ango? Right, he just returned from college and he could’ve brought something there, right? But to have it linger is pretty bad….I know that….but every time I’ve ever taken a test before it’s been negative and–”

“Okay, dear, let’s take a breather.” Ash had put their pad down, now looking at her with their dark eyes. “Normally I wouldn’t stop you, but you’re running in circles here. Let’s break it down. Your brother Taako bought you a test. Okay, now, it seems like you’re afraid of it being negative. Probably because you’re building your hopes up, right?”

Lup nodded, taking deep, slow breaths to get her heartbeat under control.

“Good. Now, there has to be a reason why he would buy you one. Go through a list of why he would suspect it, perhaps? Will you be willing to do that?” Lup just nodded, racking her brain as to  _ why. _

“Well….I haven’t been feeling well for months. To the point where I just couldn’t get out of bed.” She took a deep breath, trying to remember. “I will admit that I haven’t had a period in….probably five months? But it’s always been irregular. So that’s pretty normal. My sense of smell has been stronger, but I thought it was just like a weird body thing….Magnus came over with the dogs and I nearly vomited from the smell. Then again, I did have that when I was getting used to my body.

“Uhhh….I’ve been craving stuff? Like hot boiled peanuts on top of salt and vinegar chips. They have to be on top of the chip, no other way or else I feel sick….but I also just like salt and vinegar chips.” She pursed her lips together. “I’ve got nothing else.”

Ash cocked their head to the side. “Are you sure? Huh.” Ash picked up their sketchpad and pencil again, going back to sketching. “Okay. How would you feel if the test came out positive?” 

She didn’t have to think of her answer. “Ecstatic. I still want to have kids, you know? And I feel like Barry and I are in a really good place. We’ve started talking about it some more and for once I didn’t feel stressed about it. I felt totally relaxed, and he didn’t look stressed either which….that’s good right?”

Ash nodded again, sketching away.

“And if it were negative?” 

This time she had to ponder. At this point she just expected it, right? She’s never had a positive pregnancy test. She would be disappointed, but she and Barry were planning on doing something. If it turned out negative, it would be fine. There were other options available to them. Yeah….it would be fine….she’d be expecting it, she’d be upset and disappointed, but….at the same time she would be fine. She and Barry would be fine. There were other options. 

“I see.”

“I didn’t even answer!”

“You didn’t have to. I’ve known you for three years now, Lup, I know your tells.” They continued to sketch. “Tell me again, what other clues does your brother have?”

“Ash, I’ve already told you–” and then, something went off in her head. She wasn’t allowed in the Astral Plane….she wasn’t able to turn into a skeleton….she couldn’t even summon her scythe….and the Queen had her working from home….the litter box….the wine….that little fucker. “I got to go.”

“Always a pleasure seeing you, Lup

Say hello to Barry for me.” A smirk appeared on their features as Lup ran out of the room. They continued to sketch their drawing. “Also, congratulations to the both of you.”

* * *

Lup came rushing into their front door, causing Taako to jump a foot in the air as he whirled around with a knife in hand. 

“Hachi machi, Lup! You can’t come rushing in here like that!” He scolded as he put the knife down, Lup ignored him and went straight in her and Barry’s room. “Whatcha doing?”

Lup grabbed the box from off the floor and looked at it. Okay, okay, she can do this, this was fine, this was more than fine. She rushed into their bathroom ripping the box open. It was like deja vu, but this time….this one truly felt different. 

“Lu?”

“Bathroom!” She called out with the plastic wrapper in her mouth, tearing it open with her teeth as she scrambled to find the directions, even though she practically had them memorized. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears with anticipation. All she had to do was take it. And she did. She did her business with it and capped it, reading over the directions again and setting her timer for 3 minutes. She quickly washed her hands before grabbing the test and rushing back to her and Barry’s room. Taako was sitting on the bed, still in his apron. She put the test on the dresser, pacing back to the dresser as they both waited for the timer to be done. 

The tension in the room was thick as they waited. Lup bounced her leg up and down, focusing on taking deep breaths. Taako was trying to appear nonchalant, but failing. She could see how tense his shoulders were. She knew he would blame himself for getting her hopes up if it was negative. But somehow….she had a feeling it wouldn’t be. She thought that she had that feeling before, that she just knew, but this time….it was undeniable. The signs were all there. Her brain just had to make the connection. 

The timer on her phone chimed and the two of them jumped. Taako looked wild and nervous. They looked at each other for a long moment. 

“I can look for you if you want?” Lup shook her head.

“I wanna do it.” She shakily got up from the chair and made her way over to the dresser, hands vibrating and sweating. She had turned it over before she set it down so she wouldn’t know the answer prematurely. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and quickly flipped it over in her hand, her heart in her throat. Taking another breath, she opened her eyes looking at the test. 

She collapsed to the floor, a shrill scream erupting from her suddenly, and just like that, Taako was right next to her. 

“Oh gods, Lup, I’m so sorry, I really thought, godsdammit–” All she could do was shake her head as she gave the test to Taako. He was so caught off guard that it took him a second to process what she had just given him. He looked at it, confused at first, and then he was shrieking with her. 

Two little lines were staring right at them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is dry gagging in this chapter and also a brief mention of potential miscarriage! I just want to warn anyone beforehand!

“How are you going to tell Barry?” Taako asked for the billionth time. Since the first test, they had taken the second test that came with the box, and then after that they had run to the pharmacy again and picked up a digital pregnancy test. All of them had been positive. 

She could the smile from off her face as she sat on the bed, hand resting on her abdomen, trying to feel anything. 

“I don’t know. Oh gods, Barry is going to flip. Gods, Taako, I’m  _ pregnant? _ ”

Taako pinched her enough to cause some pain to go through her. She swatted him away after a disgruntled noise. 

“What? You were thinking about it! You gotta start thinking about doctor’s appointments and prenatal vitamins! Lup, we haven’t looked into the best prenatal vitamin for my future protege!”

“Who’s to say they’re your little protege? You already have Angus!” She argued, putting a hand protectively over her abdomen away from her brother. 

“He’s practically graduated!”   


“So? Maybe they’ll like evocation, and not weird ass transmutation!”

“Without weird ass transmutation we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now!”

Lup rolled her eyes as she caressed her belly just a little bit. Her little baby was right there below her hand….and they had been for who knows how long. 

“Do you know how far along you are?” Lup shook her head.

“Not really. I can’t really go based off of my period because irregular gang! It could be as early as maybe two months?”

“And at the latest?”

“Four or five?”

Taako groaned as he plopped himself down on the bed and then sat back up again. 

“Four or five? Weren’t you at Barry’s Mom’s house around that time or something?”

“Oh shit.”

“Lup that’s fucking gross! You probably conceived your kid in Barry’s childhood bedroom!” Taako hollered, suddenly off the bed.

“Ew no, Taako! She made an extension for us! We wouldn’t have done anything if that were the case! Gross, why did you have to make it weird?”

“You’re the one jostling the sheets at Barry’s Mom’s house!” Lup slapped his arm for that one, rolling her eyes at that. 

“She made it completely soundproof, it’s not like she could hear us.”

“Yeah because you two are fucking gross and she knows it!”

“Says the guy who can’t remember to put silence on his room!”

“That was one time!”

“Yeah, one time last week, and then the week before that, and the week–” Taako went to slap her arm that she dodged, an offended gasp coming out of her. “No hitting the pregnant lady, Tikkity Tok, I’m carrying precious cargo!”

“I swear to gods if you’re going to be like this your whole pregnancy then I’m getting a hotel. Besides, I was nowhere near the baby!”

Lup let out an exuberant sound, plopping herself on the bed as she held her stomach, rubbing it lovingly. 

“What? What’s going on?”

“It’s just really setting in that Barry and I are going to have a baby, that’s all. We’ve both been wanting this for so long Taako, and it’s  _ happening!  _ I’m pregnant!” A joyful smile spread across her features as she couldn’t hold it in any longer. She started giggling excitedly, rubbing her stomach once again, seeing if there was any soft curve just yet. Her pants had been getting harder to get on, but she thought it was the hot boiled peanuts and salt and vinegar chips. But no, it was her little one growing. “You’re already loved so much, baby.”

Taako laid down next to her and motioned if he could touch her belly. She nodded feeling the joy just coat her in a thick layer of sweetness. 

“We still gotta talk about doctors and gods telling everyone else, oh shit. And then telling Barold’s mom? Do you know if she wants grandkids? Has she ever brought it up?” Taako rambled as he rubbed her belly, his thinking face on. “Do you think I can feel them yet?”

Lup hummed in response as she smiled softly down at her belly.

“Let’s not talk about telling everyone else yet until Barry knows, okay? Same goes for talks about doctors. And now I’m including a birth plan because I really don’t know about that. Also, she’s never brought up about me having kids, probably because she understands, ya know? Barry was sort of her miracle child.” She looked at her belly again, “just like you peanut. Already so much like your Dada. He’s going to be so excited for you.”

“Ew, how dare you already start with the baby talk. Don’t poison that baby’s brain now, or else you’re gonna have to deal with Uncle Taako.” Lup jabbed Taako in the side, a smile on her face. 

“Aww! You’re already calling yourself Uncle Taako!”

“Well, natch. We’re gonna be great partners in crime this lil Gremlin and me.”

* * *

Barry and Kravitz arrived home the following evening, just in time for dinner. Lup and Taako had been talking a little bit about the baby upon their arrival, but had stopped as soon as the familiar ripping sound echoed out. Lup looked to Taako and smiled at him as she got up from her seat and went straight to Barry, smiling at him brightly. 

“Hey, babe,” he smiled softly at her as she greeted him, his eyes already soft with so much love that he carried for her. 

“Hey, how are you feeling? Any better I hope?” Lup nodded enthusiastically. 

“Much better. You think I can steal you away for a second before we eat? I made a new spell up and I really want to show you.” She bounced on the balls of her feet as she grabbed Barry’s hand, squeezing it three times.

“Yeah, of course. Is that all right with you, Taako?”

“Yeah, yeah, just if you do anything gross make sure to cast silence.” He teased, waving his hand at them a little bit. Lup rolled her eyes at that and made a horse sound with her lips to show off her irritation. 

“Like you’re one to talk, Tikkity” She looked to Barry again, feeling like she was glowing from the inside out. “Also, welcome home. I missed you.” Barry’s eyes once again softened in the way she loved so much as she caressed his cheek a little bit.

“I missed you, too. It’s not the same without you in the field.” He kissed her gently on her lips as Taako made a gagging sound. 

“Do you hets  _ mind? _ Handsome and I are trying to eat!” He complained loudly, and all too dramatically. 

“We should probably get going, wouldn’t want Taako to lose it all over dinner, now would we?” Barry murmured holding her hands close to his chest as he pressed a soft kiss to them. She didn’t respond, she just nodded and led him to their room, Taako giving her a knowing look as they walked past. 

They crossed the living room and went straight into their room, letting Barry go in first before closing the door behind both of them. They looked at one another for a long moment, smiles not breaking from their faces. 

“So, was you showing me something a euphemism for something else or….?”

“I mean, maybe not for what you’re thinking. Just….sit on the bed and close your eyes.”

“Are we also using the blindfold for this?” He asked as he obeyed and closed his eyes, hands covering his eyes to prove to her that he wasn’t peeking. 

“To think you were once a nerd who couldn’t look anyone in the eye let alone suggest something like that,” she tutted as she looked for her box. She and Taako had thought of what they could possibly do to surprise him. This was the best idea they had. “It’s not kinky business, babe, but if you want the blindfold, I can get it.”

“I think I’m good for now, but thanks for the offer, my love.” She smirked at him even though she knew he couldn’t see her. She finally pulled the box out of her hiding spot just in case Barry rifted through their room. It was just a plain white box, something they had on hand for birthdays. They had scouted the Fantasy Target for a plain white onesie so that they could just magic it up to look the way they wanted it to look. Also inside the box were all the tests she had taken, and yeah, gross, but also it was the first thing she thought of when pressed for time. She pushed off the imaginary dust from the box and turned to Barry. 

“Okay, hold out your hands, don’t open your eyes until I say you can.”

“This is a very weird way of showing me a new spell, Lup.” Barry murmured, his hands out and eyes closed tightly so as to prove that he was being a good sport about this. She kissed his forehead before putting the box in his hand, sitting down next to him. 

“Okay, open,” She put her hands on his shoulder as he opened his eyes and looked down at the box, face perplexed at what he was looking at. 

“Okay, I know it’s not our anniversary, Lup, you can’t try to fool me again. Also, it’s not my birthday? But I’m pretty sure you know that?” He looked at her, dark eyes flashing with concern.

“It doesn’t have to be your birthday nor our anniversary for you to get a gift. Besides, I only did that because Taako dared me. He thought you would be forgetful, congrats, you can remember important days in our history together. Open it, Bear!” He stole a kiss from her quickly before he ripped open the box and threw the tissue paper in the air like what she wanted him to do, she smiled broadly when he got to the onesie, eyebrows furrowing together. 

“Lup, I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in this, unless this is your spell? Did you magic this so it could fit anyone?” He pulled the denim onesie out of the box, flipping it around a bit as he looked at it perplexed. “Is this for the cats?”

“No silly, I also didn’t magic it to fit everyone, even though that’s a good idea, gotta get on that. I will say Taako did magic this to denim. It was white once upon a time, but that’s just not your vibe.” 

“I don’t know, I do look good in a white shirt.”

“Yeah, obvi, but you’re Barry  _ Bluejeans _ . Gotta live up to the name.” She rubbed his back a bit. “Look at the box again!” Barry raised an eyebrow at her before looking at the bottom of the box, looking at the four sticks. Very shakily, he lifted one up from the box, eyes widening at what it proclaimed.

“A-are you? No….Lup….babe, no way. Lup, you’re? You’re?” Lup could only nod up and down as the tears started to collect in both of their eyes. Suddenly, he was embracing her in his arms, the box toppling to the ground. He cradled her in his arms as he cried onto her shoulder. Suddenly he was pulling back, cupping her face in his hands. “When did you find out?”

“Yesterday. I couldn’t believe it either, we had to get more to be sure.” Barry kissed her suddenly, she yelped in surprise before wrapping her arms around his neck. They couldn’t help but smile as they kissed one another, both sharing so much joy in this moment. They started to laugh together as Barry collapsed inelegantly on her. 

“Do you know how far along you are?” She shook her head. 

“I couldn’t really calculate it well. The earliest is 2 months and the latest is 4 to 5. I wanted to wait to go to the doctor until you knew and could go.”

“Well, let’s make the appointment!” He was so eager that she laughed a little bit as she carded her fingers through his hair. 

“Babe, it’s after 7, most offices are closed now. We can make it tomorrow morning.” He smiled at her, the warm smile that she had seen so many times in her life directed to her and she couldn’t help but smile at him even wider. “Congrats, you’re gonna be a Dad!”

“And congrats to you, you’re going to be a Mom!” Barry sat up, running his hands through his hair as he processed it all once and for all. “Gods, Lup, we’re going to be parents.”

Lup kissed him softly as he took hold of her hand and squeezed it tightly three times, lacing his hand through hers. She couldn’t help but be so desperately happy, her hand already just resting on her stomach naturally at this point. Barry looked at her.

“Can I see?” Lup’s face broke out into an even bigger smile and nodded, lifting up her shirt up just a bit to show her abdomen that was developing an ever so slight curve. Barry’s face lit up as he looked at it, his eyes tearing up again. She took his free hand and pressed it up against her abdomen, his tears coming down quickly now.

“Feel that? We made that, babe.”

“Pretty sure you’re currently making that.” Lup shrugged.

“Semantics. Fact of the matter is, I had help getting them in here.” Barry kissed her once again, not letting go of her hand nor raising his other hand from her abdomen. 

* * *

They were both jittery as they walked into the doctor’s office, holding each other’s hand, not knowing what to expect. It was cold Lup had noted but they probably did that intentionally. She couldn’t stop her hand from resting on her abdomen, which felt like it had doubled in size since she had found out she was pregnant. Barry sat next to her, shuffling through their bag of both of their medical histories. 

“You think they’re going to need to know that I had the chicken pox at 2?” He asked as he was looking through the records. 

“I really don’t know, but I will say that I broke my arm at like 7. That’s important, right?” With her free hand, Lup was filling out the form to get her all set up. “Oh shit, should I bring up that Taako’s allergic to peanuts?”

They carried on like this for a while, trying to put any relevant information on the sheet to the point it was filled in with a slew of weird things that had happened to both the twins and Barry when they were growing up. Taako breaking his finger, Barry throwing up for a year straight after eating something questionable when he was like 4. The receptionist at the desk looked like she was trying to stay composed as she looked it over. 

“Is this your first?” She asked with a practiced smile. 

“Is it that obvious?” Barry asked, still shuffling with his bag full of records that he had to get from his mom without causing her to be suspicious. The receptionist laughed good naturedly.

“I’ve seen worse, don’t worry. Just sit down and relax, they’ll call you shortly.”

They did just that, walking back hand in hand with Barry fussing a little bit. 

“Do you need more water? Here, I filled you up a bottle before we left.” He told her, giving her the red bottle that Taako had made for her as a joke. It had her name on it but spelled ‘Loop.’ She had jabbed him slightly after that. 

“Yeah, I was getting pretty thirsty there, thanks, Bear.” She squeezed his hand a bit, smiling at him. They made it back to their seats and Lup took a big gulp of water, trying to let the water calm her nerves. She could see Barry start jiggling his leg a bit, looking like he was about to pass out. “Hey, babe? Do you wanna feel the baby?”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, come on, give me your hand.”

And that’s how they spent the time waiting to be called, doting on the baby and cooing to them. 

“Lup Taaco Bluejeans?” Lup squeezed Barry’s hand again and smiled at him. 

“Ready?”

“Yeah. More than ready.”

Things she didn’t expect when she went into her appointment that she guessed she should’ve guessed, but at the same time, not really. 1.) she was going to get jabbed at with needles….a lot. It wasn’t as bad as IVF was, but still, it sucked ass. 2.) no going to the bathroom before the ultrasound. Who fucking knew, not her. The nurse had to drag her away from going to the bathroom right before. 

The technician had been going over what they were seeing and measuring the baby and then paused for a moment mid-sentence. She wrinkled her eyebrows together looking at the monitor, perplexed and then told them that she would be right back and left to get the doctor with no further explanation to them. Of course Lup thought the worst case scenario right away. Something had to be wrong with the baby. They were behind in development, that had to be it. The pregnancy wasn’t viable anymore and they would have to end it. The baby didn’t have a heartbeat and everything was now gone from their grasps once more. The tech came back quickly with the doctor in front of her, her lips pursed together slightly. The doctor nodded to them and sat down at the monitor and proceeded to do the ultrasound. 

“You said you have a twin brother, right?”

“Yeah, identical. Why?”

The doctor murmured something under her breath before she turned to the technician to turn on the tv monitor. She was gripping on Barry’s hand so tightly that she was surprised he hadn’t said uncle yet. But to be fair, he was looking pale as he also didn’t know what was going on. And then suddenly a grainy ultrasound greeted them, the doctor moved the wand around her belly some more, put the sound on the machine and Lup almost passed out from relief. The baby had a heartbeat, Barry seemed to have also taken a breath after hearing the heart beating, his head lowered just a bit before gazing at the monitor again. 

“Okay, well, here’s your baby.” The doctor said. “This one measuring at just about 18 weeks, so that puts the due date at around early spring to mid spring. And let’s see here.”

The doctor adjusted the wand a bit more which confused her, but maybe they were looking for the placenta? How the amniotic fluid was doing? All of these very valid inquiries.

Lup looked over to Barry, she wished they could’ve seen the baby for a little bit longer, just so she could really look at them. Still, what she did get was enough to get her eyes prickling with tears. He gave her hand a long squeeze as he looked down at her. He leaned down and gave her a kiss, she’d like to blame it on the added hormones to her body, but she just knew that wasn’t the case at this point. They had made this small baby together after years of wanting and hoping. Albeit, they were in a better state now than the years they spent trying, but the sentiment remained. They wanted this, and they finally got to live it. 

“And right over here, is little sibling.” 

Lup and Barry heads snapped to the doctor. 

“What?” 

“We are going to have to refer you to a high risk office due to you carrying twins, also the fact they appear to be mono mono. We’re going to have to keep a close eye on them, appointments will be regular to keep watch on anything.” The doctor explained, she pointed to the screen showing the little head of the other baby. “This one seems to be a little troublemaker, see, one of their feet is at their sibling’s head.”

The squeeze on her hand didn’t let go, instead it just got tighter as she and Barry looked dumbfounded at the monitor, seeing how there was indeed a foot that definitely didn’t belong to the first baby they saw. The both of them gaped at the screen, not really knowing what to expect. Twins were rare enough, let alone identical twins, let alone mono mono twins. Fraternal twins she could see. They didn’t really run in the family. As far as she knew, Taako and her were the only twins in the family, and they were identical. Oh shit, she was having twins. She looked up at Barry and was caught by surprise by the total elation in his face. A wide smile was on his face as he looked utterly enamored by the screen in front of him. He looked down at her, the tears now streaming down his face fully as he started to laugh, taking her hand up to his lips and pressing a long kiss onto it.

“Lup, look! We’re gonna have a little you and Taako!” His voice sounded so choked with emotion, but also so unrestrained by pure joy. His eyes were glittering in the near darkness, wet with tears and just overall happiness. “Would it be okay if we got a picture of that?”

“Of course! I’ll print the whole ultrasound for you. Would you like to hear the heartbeats again?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

* * *

As they walked back to the car, Barry and Lup had kept their eyes on the printed pictures of the two little ones, pointing out their features. They had been immersed in them since they entered the waiting room, causing the receptionist to laugh a little under her breath as they walked by. 

“I think they have your nose, babe,” Lup mused, pointing out their noses, one hand firmly on her abdomen. Barry shook his head and pointed with his own finger. 

“Nah, they have your nose, just look! That’s definitely a Lup nose right there.”

“No, they’re going to have your cute ass nose, I just know it!”

“Babe, there is nothing cute about my nose, besides, that looks more like your nose if anything.”

“You’re a full on liar. You know you have the cutest nose in all of the universes, and now our kids are going to be blessed with it.” Lup stopped him as they got to the car, put his face in her hand and planted a kiss right on his nose for added emphasis. For his part, Barry just rolled his eyes. “They’re also going to have your eyes.”

“You can’t tell that from a sonogram, Lup.”

“I don’t need a sonogram, it’s called mother’s intuition, and they will have your pretty, perfect eyeballs.” Lup rubbed her stomach just a little bit. “I wonder how long it’ll be until I start feeling them?”

“I have no idea. The doctor said it varied from person to person. All I hope is that I’m not called away when you do start feeling them move.” He put a hand on her belly, smiling down at the not even noticeable bump there. 

“When do you want to invite your mom over? She has one of the belts, right?”

“Yeah she does. We can’t keep it away from her, I’m sure she’s itching for grandkids, but is trying to keep it under wraps for our sake.” Barry gave her a soft peck on the lips before unlocking their car and opening her door for her. 

“Ever the gentleman you are. Is it just because I’m carrying your kids?”

“More so because I love my wife, but whatever makes you happiest for the reasoning.”

“Sap.” She climbed in, grabbing the sonogram pictures from Barry’s hand and immediately started looking through them as she got her seatbelt on. She went to close her door, only to find Barry had done it for her, gods did she love him to no end. Barry got in on his side, starting up the car as quickly as he could. 

“Not too hot, not too cold, right?” He asked, putting their bag of important things in the center console between them. Lup grabbed the bag and quickly put it at her feet. No need for that bag to try to ruin their hand holding, not in this car. 

“It’s perfect, Bear, you can stop fussing over me.” He gave her a look that told her he was absolutely not going to stop fussing over her. She rolled her eyes good naturedly as he buckled in, already having her hand out for holding. “Back to your mom. Do you think she can come on over this weekend? I don’t really want to keep her in the dark for too long, and I guess we don’t have to keep it a secret for a bit since we’re already out of the first trimester.”

“You do have a point about that. Huh, I can’t believe these little monsters just slipped through the cracks like that.” Barry began to pull out of his parking spot, driving ultra carefully ever since the announcement about the precious cargo was made. 

“I mean, they’re half you, half me. They’re gonna be dramatic little devils. Do you want to tell Ash about them or do you want me to tell them?” Barry finally gave his hand to her, and she couldn’t help but relish in it. She gave a little squeeze, only for him to eagerly squeeze back and pull her hand up to his lips again. To think that nearly 2 years ago this wouldn’t even be happening. They’d be giving each other the silent treatment, barely recognizing who the other was. 

“You wanna tell them together? I’ve been kind of liking going to them when you go and just waiting out in the hall until you’re finished and then it being my turn to go in.” He gave her a quick glance, a smile on his face. They had really just started going to therapy together, haven’t they? In the beginning they really couldn’t do anything together since they were so out of sync with the other. They had gone three days a week all on separate days, and would take dinner in separate locations. Sometimes they would just stay in the office if they didn’t want to deal with all the guilt they had accumulated over the years, not knowing how to bridge the gap between them, but automatically thinking a baby would fix it. Gods were they wrong. As much as it hurt to see all the negative tests, Lup was now relieved that she hadn’t gotten pregnant during that time. They could barely take care of themselves let alone a baby who was solely dependent on them. 

“I think that sounds like a plan.” She looked at the pictures again and cooed at the little features. “Oh, we should probably call that high risk office when we get home and book an appointment through them. The receptionist told us that she’d forward all of our records over to them.” 

“Yeah, I hope I don’t get called into any last minute bounties. I don’t want to miss a single appointment. How are your prenatal vitamins working? I know that some can make people nauseous.” He squeezed her hand and let go so he could properly make a turn. Once he was clear, he immediately put his hand back in hers. 

“Uhh, I mean it’s been fine? Not the greatest. I don’t know if it’s the prenatal vitamins that’s making me nauseous per say. I think these kids just have fun making me feel sick.” She squeezed his hand, smirking at a picture of one of the babies just grabbing the others ankle. They had been so active in there, which she thinks makes sense since they actually had another being to interact with. She wondered if she and Taako–”Oh, shit.”

Barry’s head immediately whipped to her for a second until he remembered what he was doing and immediately looked back to the road. 

“What? Are you okay? Do you need me to turn back and see that doctor again?” Lup gently put the sonogram on her lap and patted his hand soothingly to try to reassure him that everything was fine.

“I’m fine, babe. I just remembered something though: how are we going to tell Taako?”

“Oh, fuck.”

* * *

Barry opened the door for her, to which she thanked him with a hand squeeze as she made her way into the house, gifts galore in her left arm. In the end, the both of them decided to just go to Fantasy Target and figure something out in the car as an attempt to tell Taako the news. They had gotten a goody bag with two of everything, hoping that he’d get it before he got to the card that loudly announced Double the Trouble with one of their sonograms. 

“Hey, we’re home!” She announced as she kicked off her shoes near the shoe rack. She’ll put them there nicely in a moment, but right now, she was buzzing with energy. Besides, Taako couldn’t be angry at her since she was always straightening his shoes up when he came home. 

“About fucking time! Your appointment was at like 2 wasn’t it? It’s dinner time and you didn’t even help me.” Taako made an appearance, his arms crossed and definitely putting on an act. 

“Sorry, Barry and I got caught up with trying to put together an announcement for Marlena.” She took Barry’s hand again as he closed the door. “Is Kravitz here?”

“No, he got caught up with some newbies RQ sacked on him. I think they’re like….y’alls replacements while on parental leave or whatever. Very rude. I want my man here eatin some good grub with me.” 

“Huh, well guess he can see the picture of the baby later. Also, we got you something.” Lup walked over to him with Barry in tow, trying to present one of the bags to him. “Take the one that says Tik Tak to the couch. I’ll be right behind you.” He gave her a skeptical look but obeyed her nonetheless, taking the gift to the couch as she set down everyone else’s gift on the cleaned counter. Taako probably cleaned up for her, too. He really did care, didn’t he?

“What’s the other bags for?”

“Announcements to everyone else. Magnus and Creesha are getting the smaller ones.” She explained as she and Barry made their way over. They separated so they sat on either side of Taako. “Well, open it!”   


“Is this a gift to welcome me into Uncle hood? Because I’ve been in Uncle hood for way longer than you two even knew about that little worm squirming in there.” Taako pointed out, not even touching the gift. 

“Wormy is a good nickname for the baby….huh I kind of like it.”

“No way in hell am I letting you call my precious protege Wormy, Lulu.” Before they could fully start bickering, Barry pinched Taako’s arm, causing Taako to yelp out way too dramatically for the pinch that was given. 

“Barold, if you so much as touch me again I will switch all your food to dairy.” Barry just rolled his eyes at that. 

“As if I don’t eat dairy anyway.”

“Babe!”

“What? Sometimes you get the urge to have a chocolate milkshake! The stomach pains are worth it for the goodness!” He tapped the bag again, “before this devolves into us bickering about what I ingest in my body, I suggest you open that, Taaks.”

“I really don’t want to know what you ingest in your body, to be honest. You could be into some weird ass ghosty shit, my dude, and I’m good with being ignorant to that.” Lup pinched him this time which earned her a weak swat and a disgruntled look on his face. He ripped open the bag, letting the tissue paper fly out. He pulled out the two pacifiers and only gave them both a strange look. Then the two bottles. The four pairs of baby socks. Two little newborn diapers. “Hey, Lulu, if this is you and Barold’s way of telling me I’m watching the baby while you two are out doing whatever, then I’m gonna need a lot more than just two of each thing. You know how quickly newborns go through diapers? It’s fucking wild. How do they even produce that much shit?”

“Just keep going, dingus.”

He pulled out the two little onesies, his expression turning to that of suspicion. He eyed Lup carefully, pulling out the last of the gifts, the little card. It was addressed to him as Uncle Koko with a little heart at the end. His eyebrows crinkled a little bit as he opened the envelope.

The card itself was rather plain on the outside. Just a little white card that was so unassuming but held so much. He opened it cautiously, only to be sprayed with confetti. 

“Lup!”

“Don’t get mad at me, just read the fucking card!” He wrinkled his nose and turned to the card again, seeing a flap of paper saying lift me. 

“Lup, if this sprays more confetti at me, so help me Istus.”

“Will you just fucking lift it? I’m hungry Taako!” Lup whined, rubbing her belly for the drama of it all. She wasn’t lying when she said she was hungry, she was getting a little cranky. The cake pop that she couldn’t finish because she felt too nauseous could only hold her over for so long. 

Taako wrinkled his nose at her again before lifting the flap up cautiously, seeing the sonogram from earlier. He looked at it, a little puzzled. 

“What am I looking at?”   


“Did you seriously roll a nat fucking 1 on perception? Look at the little blurb at the bottom. Read it outloud.” Taako huffed out loudly, closing his eyes as before looking back to blurb at the bottom, putting on his ‘I’m going to mock my sibling now’ voice.

“Surprise Uncle Ko! There’s two of–” his voice faltered off as he looked at the sonogram and then back at Lup and then back at the sonogram. He did this four more times, his last time pulling the picture up to his face, his mouth agape. 

“Surprise!” Taako completely ignored her, going over to Barry lifting the sonogram to him. 

“She’s fucking with me isn’t she? She has to be fucking with me! There’s no way. Barold, my dear brother, please tell me she’s fucking with me.” Taako was all up in Barry’s business, and all Barry did was take the card with the sonogram on it and stare at it lovingly. 

“Nope, she’s 100% not fucking with you. Wanna see more of them? In one it looks like they’re playing. Babe, where did we put that one?”

“Oh, I think it’s still in the car. Fuck, I forgot the bag in the car. That has all of our records in it.” Lup made her way to get up again to grab the bag, only to be pulled down again and face to face with her brother. 

“I swear to the gods if this is a sick prank, Lup.”

“Why would I prank about this? There’s a line, and I’d be way over that line if I did that. No, the biggest prank was the confetti, and that was fun. There’s really two, Taako.” She took his hands, smiling warmly at him. “Also, they’re identical.”

Taako’s eyes grew wide as saucers as he looked first at Lup and then at her slightly bloated abdomen. He hesitantly raised his hand to touch. She nodded at him to give him permission, proudly presenting her belly to him. 

“Holy shit, Lup….twins?” Lup nodded as Barry got up the couch and made his way over closer to them, kissing her on her cheek before leaving the room to retrieve the bag from the car. 

“Hell fucking yeah, bro.” And then the reality of it all finally settled in. The fact that they are mono/mono and she will probably be in the doctor’s office every week until she gives birth to make sure there wasn’t any twin to twin transfusion going on. It was worth it, though. 100% it was worth it. 

“You’re worried about something.”

“Yeah. Mono/mono twins, ya know? 20% chance of twin to twin transfusion….lot’s of things to worry about.”

“Does Barry know?” Lup smiled, remembering how they spoke in hushed voices in the fantasy Target about this very thing. Barry had gotten a little anxious as soon as it set in, taking that moment to call the high risk office just in case they didn’t make it home in time before they closed. Lup had him put it on speaker just so she could also talk about her own concerns. It was exciting, knowing that they were having twins, but it was also terrifying. There were so many risk factors with multiples.

“Yeah, he does. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be our talking point with Ash in our next appointment, but right now….Taako, let’s just celebrate, ya know? To think that there are currently four people in this room….that’s fucking wild. You think Istus knows?”

“Well she knows now, duh, goddess of Fate. But before? Yeah I don’t know. There was probably like 50 billion outcomes. Fate is fucking weird.” Taako looked down at her stomach again. “Have you felt anything yet?”

“Other than gas, no. Apparently how they’re positioned has a big part on whether or not I’ll be able to feel them. I think they’re sitting pretty comfortably for the most part, though? Won’t be long until they’ll get cramped.” She prodded a little bit at her stomach just to see if she were to stir something. She knew that she had time before she’d be able to feel, but she was a little impatient. She just wanted to feel them.

A sudden rip through their living room sounded, revealing a rather disgruntled looking Kravitz, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he hunched over himself. 

“Have I ever told anyone how much I hate training newbies?” He huffed as he shuffled over to the couch to collapse on top of it, breathing in deeply as he knitted his skin over his bones. 

“Don’t you wanna keep in skelie form? You know, so you can crash tonight?” Taako asked, still holding the card in his hand as he left Lup to move over to Kravitz’s couch where he breathed in deeply again.

“I heard that there was a good dinner and didn’t want to miss out.” Kravitz turned his head so he could look at Taako and tiredly flayed one arm towards his hand to grab onto it. “Besides, in skeleton form I wouldn’t be able to feel your hand.”

Taako made a pleased sound at that, plopping a kiss on his head before retreating back into the kitchen.

“Come on, Lulu, help me set the table so I can feed this man and put him to bed.”

“Can you hold that thought? I gotta pee real fast!” She announced, getting up from off the couch and quickly going over to the bathroom.

“You didn’t have to go before?”   


“I didn’t have to go until someone knocked into my bladder apparently!” She closed the door behind her, hearing Kravitz pipe up from the couch.

“Right, you had that appointment today. How was it?” He sounded so tired that Lup felt bad for the poor guy. He was probably trying to teach the new reapers as quickly as he could, especially Barry’s sub. Poor dude. He probably worked to the bone. She made herself laugh a little at that. She finished up her business, scolded her kids for kicking her bladder, and washed her hands as quickly as possible so she could answer Kravitz’s question before he could pass out again. She opened the door and made her way over to the kitchen to start helping Taako with setting the table. 

“Really great! We got all that good shit going on there, got to see some cute ass babies, got my blood drawn and even got my finger pricked!” Lup smirked at him. She wondered if he would catch on to her use of the plural form of baby. All she got was a tired thumbs up from him.

“Sounds wonderful, Lup.” The front door opened and closed and Lup could hear Barry slowly making his way in, no doubt looking at the pictures again. 

“I love you Lup, and I would never say this without the utmost confidence, but I really think you’re wrong.” Barry announced, making his way into the kitchen with the sonogram picture in his hand. He looked up and caught sight of Kravitz. “Oh hey Krav, how did everything go?” Kravitz just gave him a tired groan. Taako for his part, paused in getting the wine glasses from their china cabinet. 

“Did you two put bets?”

“No bets necessarily. Just predicting what they’ll look like is all.”

“Oh lit, what is this on?”

“Whether or not they’ll have Barry or my nose.” Lup shrugged her shoulders. “Personally, I think that they’re gonna have Barry’s.”

“And I think they’re gonna have Lup’s.” Taako raised an eyebrow and made his way over to Barry’s side, passing over the wine glasses to Lup who took them with a surprised look on her face.

“What am I supposed to do with these?”

“I don’t know, Lup, put wine in them maybe?”

“You know, that’s so rude, I can’t even drink it.” She whined as she looked over to what Taako had cooked up. Rosemary chicken with asparagus and roasted small potatoes. He was really making sure she hit up all the food groups. “Are we expecting Angus tonight?”

“Nah, short stuff had things to do. Apparently he’s on a new case? The deets are lost on me.” Lup hummed in response as she eyed the wine cabinet thinking what could go well with it all. In the end, she chose a blanc. Maybe not her brother’s first choice, but she wasn’t drinking it. Her and the kids were living it up with good old refreshing water. She brought the wine bottle over to the glasses, opening it up and breathing in the aroma that was given to her. It hit her nose hard, and she had to try not to gag on it. It smelled like something, she couldn’t place her finger on exactly, but it just smelled bad. She put the bottle down on the counter and went over to the sink and began to dry gag into it. Almost immediately there was someone behind her, rubbing her back and holding back her hair. Nothing came out, but she really appreciated it all the same.

“You okay?” Barry asked, rubbing her back some more as she righted herself, rubbing her abdomen a little bit. Can’t drink wine, can’t smell it. These kids.

“Yeah, I guess I can’t even pour the wine though. Sorry, Taaks. They said hell no.” She looked over to Taako who was currently holding the pictures, eyes wide and looked like he was mid run before Barry probably got in front of him. “Anyway, what’s your verdict? Who’s boat are you on in this?”

Taako shook his head, and looked down at the pictures in front of him, wrinkling his nose.

“You know, I don’t know. Is it just me or do all babies just look the same in the womb? They’re all kind of creepy in these things. Anyway, babe, you wanna see Barry and Lup’s little gremlins? They look funky as fuck.” Taako waved the sonogram to the lump of a man on the couch before him. Said lump groaned a little bit before wearily lifting his form up and walking over to all of them, eyes barely looking like they could stay open. He reached Taako’s side, leaning on his shoulder as he looked at the picture bleary eyed. 

“It is cute I guess? Kind of just looks like a blob though? And what’s that other thing in there?”

“What thing?”

“You know, the thing over here?” Barry and Lup made their way over to Taako’s other side and looked at the sonogram. They followed Kravitz’s finger as he pointed to one of the kids. “What is that?”

“Did you just call me and Barry’s baby a  _ thing, _ Kravitz?” It was mostly in good humor, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t feel slightly protective over her child being called a thing. Kravitz’s eyebrows shot up, alarm evident on his face. 

“I didn’t mean to offend, I promise! I just thought that this,” Kravitz pointed to the other baby, “was the child, was I mistaken?”

“You weren’t mistaken, bud. That is the baby.”

Kravitz now looked like he was going through a series of moments that none of them could really decipher. 

“But….that’s the baby?” He pointed to the first baby he pointed at. They both nodded. “Then how is this also the baby?” Taako, who was at first enjoying this all go down, face suddenly morphed into that of pure sympathy for Kravitz. Gods did her brother have it bad for him. 

“Hey, babe, what are me and Lup? Like the specific sibling type?” He asked, wrapping an arm around his back

“You’re twins, love, it’s pretty obvious.” Kravitz looked down at the sonogram again, realization dawning on his face as he looked at both Lup and Taako, mouth agape, and then looked back at the sonogram again. “You know? I had a long day. I think I’m turning in early tonight. Love, would you be mad if I missed out on dinner?

“Course not, you tried so hard to make it through, it’s the thought that counts. I’ll wrap up your plate and you can have it later.” Taako kissed him on the cheek as Kravitz nodded, rubbing his temples. 

“The Raven Queen didn’t tell me about this. The pregnancy? Yes. Twins?” He started mumbling after that as he walked to his and Taako’s room. Lup was just shaking her head as she took the sonogram and looked at it lovingly. 

“He didn’t even answer the question. Maybe when he’s less tired and has processed it better he’ll give us a clear one, huh?” She turned and kissed Barry on the cheek. “Anyway, I’m hungry, and the two little ones who keep getting my bladder are also hungry. Let’s eat!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's still Tuesday in my heart I scream as it says it's 4:40 am on Wednesday morning. 
> 
> Thank you to those who left kudos and comments on the previous chapter! It means so much to me! I'm definitely going to try and put myself on a Tuesday schedule since Tuesdays just feel so nice and friendly for whatever reason. 
> 
> Also! Thank you to those who read the last chapter! It really means a lot!
> 
> If anyone wants to follow me and hear me scream about these kids and potentially see art for them (whenever I decide to stop being lazy about drawing them tbh) then you can follow me @MoonSympathizer on Tumblr!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW for vomiting in this chapter!

It had been about two weeks since they had told everyone about the new little ones on the way, everyone had been filled with nothing but smiles and congratulations had been used in practically every sentence. Still, when Davenport called for a group meeting at eight in the goddamn morning (which, rude, she had been up all night having to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes thanks to one of them finding her bladder if not both.) However, she guessed it was sort of fine since she and Barry had to go to their high risk appointment. They’d been going every week since they found out about the twins, which, granted, not very long, but she really did feel very well acquainted with all the nurses there already.

Her and Barry’s appointment wasn’t until three in the afternoon, still, the both of them had planned to go out to brunch together before their appointment. Maybe even hit up the bookstore if they still had time to spare. Barry had been wanting to get more pregnancy books after finishing one series of them. He had told her it was because he wanted to know what to expect in every scenario. She told him that it was impossible to know every scenario they could be in, but it was sweet to see him up late reading and showing her different things about what the babies should be doing around this time. 

So far, they had been waiting very patiently for any feeling of movement from them. It was any day now, she knew that fetal movement didn’t really start until maybe around 18 weeks and sometimes first time pregnant people didn’t feel any movement until much later because they didn’t know what to look out for. They had both read about the first flutterings, and Lup had thought she felt something like that, but it only turned out to be gas. Also, depending on the positioning of the babies, it could be pretty impossible to feel them. Especially if they decide to sit close to her back. Gods, they better not be positioned closer to her back. She didn’t think she had extra back pain, but it was hard to gage what was the normal amount of back pain and what wasn’t. 

That being recorded, she really didn’t like being awakened from her fitful slumber at 7:45 by Magnus announcing his presence loudly to her and Barry. Whoever thought it was a good idea to give him a house key she was going to murder and making sure no one found their body. She had friends in high places now. She could get away with it. The worst thing is that she couldn’t even have caffeine anymore to pick her up, or maybe the normal amount of caffeine it took her to get her feeling right. Maybe it was a side effect of pregnancy, but trancing was definitely not cutting it anymore. She needed at least three hours of sleep plus that to be somewhat functional.

Barry let her lean on him as they walked down the stairs together, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders with her glasses slipping down her nose. Glasses were a new thing. She started feeling her vision going a little bit, plus she had been getting headaches from eye strain. She wasn’t sure if it was from pregnancy or not, but she certainly had to get fitted for them before she even knew she was carrying. If it was due to her kids taking her perfect vision away that she held over Barry’s head just to tease, then she’ll be pissed. Already taking their dad’s side? Then again, it was probably more to the fact that the years of taking an extra pair of Barry’s glasses and putting them on was finally catching up to her. 

Taako was already in the kitchen, curled up on one of the chairs with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders with a mug of coffee in his hands. She never felt so envious of her brother than in that moment. The lucky asshole. Davenport looked up at them, eyes way too sharp and awake for the hour of day. 

“You’re not dressed yet?” Lup didn’t even try to hide the death glares she was giving him as she shuffled downstairs with Barry holding onto her arm for a just in case moment. Why did they need to get dressed? It’s already bad enough that she couldn’t sleep last night, now she was expected to wear stuff? Besides, she was sort of in that awkward stage where none of her regular clothes fit her anymore, but the maternity clothes she did have were too big still. It had seemed as soon as their presence was known, that’s when they wanted to start showing. Maybe she just thought that because she was finally noticing though. 

“Where are we going that warrants me getting dressed?” She and Barry finally manage to get downstairs, Lup at this point leaning heavily against him as a wave of nausea comes over her. For fucks sake does she get no peace? The amount of smells that were just hitting her all at once were way too much for her morning brain to handle. Barry at least was a smell she could handle. He had yet to make her nauseous, and she really hoped it stayed like that. She felt him start rubbing her back as she put her face in his shirt. He knew she was just trying to clear out all of the other smells going on. She’d been doing it for three weeks now, ever since it started to really hit her.

“Fantasy Denny’s! Come on, guys! It’s family day!” Magnus was honestly way too chipper for this early in the morning. Family day was normally scheduled once a month or whenever they were all together again. They’d spend the whole day with one another just catching up and seeing how everyone was doing. And it just had to be now. Obviously she knew Davenport was in town, she and Barry had asked him to come so they could tell him the news, but she didn’t think he’d stick around for so long to schedule a family day like this. Also, they couldn’t do what they normally did. They normally hit up some breakfast joint, chillout for a bit at home to talk and to charge themselves up for later in the evening. They’d have dinner together, and then hit up some nightclub where they knew they could get in for free. 

“Is that really today? Guys, we can’t really go, I know we normally hit up a bar or something, but Lup’s–”

“We know she’s preggo, we’re not about to go to a bar or anything! Something totally chill, like a park. Maybe a dog park. Guys I think we should go to a dog park.” The very idea of going to the dog park and smelling all of that made Lup want to throw up more than ever. She could’ve sworn 

she felt it come up a little bit. Gross.

“Yeah, I’m vetoing the dog park. Barry and I have plans anyway. We have to go to a doctor’s appointment–”

“Woah can we go? Are you going to see them? I wanna see them in action!” 

“I don’t even know if they want so many people in the room. Also, we’re probably going to see them, but they’re just looking at fluid levels and if there’s anything concerning. It won’t be very exciting–”

“That sounds plenty exciting! Think of all the cool stuff they could be doing!” Magnus’ voice boomed and Lup had to hold back from massaging her temples from the sudden loudness. Lack of sleep was like being hungover, yet without getting to let loose the night before. If this was how it’s going to be for the rest of the pregnancy of no sleep at night and then waking up with an onset of a headache, she’s going to throw hands. 

“Hey, Mags, let’s use our inside voices, it’s too fucking early to be doing all that.” Taako groaned, his head on his knees. Taako seemed to not get a lot of rest last night either, maybe they were on that twin thing. Maybe he just has an unhealthy rest cycle. 

Magnus nodded, a sheepish smile on his face. He whispered out a quick apology and looked to Lup, puppy dog eyes mode on. 

“Please? Promise to be on our best behavior!” She felt Barry’s hand slip into hers and a quick squeeze. He was leaving it up to her. She supposed that was valid. It was what she was comfortable with after all. And she was fine with them all coming. Of course she was, they were family, afterall, and it was sweet that Magnus was expressing such joy over seeing them. Still, why did it have to be today? She was so tired and she just wanted to crawl back into bed and try to get some sleep. On the other hand, she liked the idea of having her family at the appointment with her. They were the first infants being born into the family, and honestly they just wanted to experience it with both her and Barry.

“Yeah, you guys can come. But it’s not until the later afternoon, so we go to breakfast and then we come back here to rest up until the appointment.” She announced, really leaning onto Barry at this point at the very idea of going back to bed. Gods, what she wouldn’t do to have Barry just put a sleeping spell on her, yet she had asked him to do it before in a desperate attempt to sleep, only for him to very sorrowfully tell her no. Of course he said no, sleeping spells weren’t really recommended to expectant people. In fact, they were very much looked down upon. Still, she was desperate. She just wanted to get some sleep. 

Magnus looked like he was doing everything in his power to not start jumping. He had been the utmost excited when they announced that they were expecting. He had looked at the sonogram a little confused at first, and then once he registered what he was holding, he had broken down in tears and wrapped both her and Barry into one of the biggest hugs he had ever given. He had then requested to feel her belly, which she had quickly agreed to. She had just been glad that he asked.

So far, all of her family had been respectful about asking to touch before reaching for her belly. According to some of the other people in her birthing class, once she began to show, she wouldn’t be getting that as much. At least she had her family asking. Also, Taako had assured her that he would send the person flying if they tried to touch her without permission. Barry was also in on it. She was glad that her boys had her back, and also it would be kind of fun to see Taako blast someone out of the way for attempting to touch her like she was part of the petting zoo. Why people assumed all body autonomy was now forfeit as soon as a new person was growing in them, she would never understand. 

She suddenly felt her stomach turn for the worse as a bout of nausea overcame her. She just found it so infuriated by all the nausea that has overcome her. Sure, it happened before she found out, it happened a lot, and she really thought she had a bad stomach flu. Also, none of the books prepared her for nausea in the second trimester. She always thought it just stopped after the first and then all she had to worry about was the other shit that came with pregnancy. Instead, she also had to worry about nausea still. Bringing a bag everywhere she went as a just in case precaution was getting annoying at this point. Hell, only eating very specific foods that she knew were nausea friendly. She missed eating and not feeling nauseous. She would like to go back to that, please. 

Not being able to eat and sleep was a bad combination, she knew that, she also knew that she didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was all up to what her kids wanted to do, really. She was completely at their mercy. 

Barry kissed her head as pulled her in close. He knew how she was feeling, she was bad at hiding it at this point, especially since she just felt that she was getting sicker at this point. Maybe she should bring it up to her doctor if it continued? She didn’t know, she knew that some people just had terrible nausea during pregnancy. 

“I think we should hold off until Lup’s ready to go. She didn’t really get a lot of sleep and I know that if she smells anything too sugary right now it won’t end well.” He rubbed her arm a little bit and she couldn’t help but just take a sigh of relief. She knew that if she brought it up to him, then he would just deflect saying he was doing the bare minimum at the moment for knowing what sets off her nausea, but she had also heard the mother’s in the waiting room when they heard Barry doting on her. Some of them would come up to her and say that their husband was like that once, but after the first it sort of stopped and to enjoy it while it lasted. Some women’s husband’s didn’t even show up for the appointments because they were “too busy.” 

It was a valid excuse to be busy, she knew that. But, she also knew that Barry went to the Raven Queen with a list of all of their appointments until he goes on paternity leave so she doesn’t schedule him unless there was a big emergency. Even then, Barry normally asks if he’s really needed. She really did love the look on his face whenever they got to see them. The way he was just so transfixed on them, squeezing her hand as his eyes glistened with tears. Also his home office in the house was slowly getting more and more sonogram pictures strewn all over it, all set up in order from when they first saw them.

“Yeah, that is more than fair.” Davenport nodded his head as he got up on one of their chairs where there was already a cup of coffee. What Lup wouldn’t give to be able to drink that right about now. Godsdammit. She watched jealousy as Davenport took a long swig of the coffee, her taste buds trying to come up with the flavor as a way to trick her brain into thinking she was drinking it. Alas.

Barry rubbed her back again and led her over to the couch where he laid her down and readjusted her blanket around her again. He stroked her face a bit before turning to leave, only for her hand to shoot out from underneath her blanket. He looked at her for a second, and all she really had to do was pout a little bit until he got the message that she demanded cuddles. They made the awkward dance of Barry getting behind her and adjusting himself so they were both as comfortable as they could be. It was a good idea that they decided to get a deeper set couch and longer one so that everyone could fit on it at the same time if they wanted to. 

She heard Taako make a retching noise from somewhere, which made her involuntarily gag. She craned her neck as best as she could only to see that he had moved to the other couch, pressed up against Kravitz. She gave him a stank face only for him to shrug and gesture towards herself and Barry. His intent was clear. It was too early in the morning for het PDA. She just rolled her eyes and gave him the finger. She has no patience today. 

She snuggled deeper into Barry’s chest, trying to will her body into some sort of sleep. She swore to everything, if her bladder wished to empty itself again, she’ll scream. She was getting tired of the constant back and forth in the bathroom that will only progress later into the pregnancy. That she knew. 

She let her eyes close finally, and let Barry’s breathing lull her to a sort of sleep. She fell asleep to Barry rubbing her small bump.

It felt like she had closed her eyes when she was jolted awake suddenly. There was a noise that her ears caught, almost like a crashing noise….almost like one of her plates had been broken. Oh for gods sake. Barry felt her jolt awake and tightened his grip around her so she wouldn’t fall. She groaned from the noise as Barry pressed a kiss to her head. She blinked awake, her eyes sticking together as she tried to pry them open. 

Her vision was bleary, so she couldn’t focus on what it was at first. The light was streaming in brightly from the windows, the blinds doing nothing to block it out. For whatever reason, she wasn’t awoken by the nuisance of the light. Of course it was from whatever happened in the kitchen that woke her. Rather rudely may she add. 

She couldn’t really get up to see what happened, not with Barry’s arm draped around her. Also, she didn’t really want to move it. She was strangely comfortable where she was, and for once she didn’t have to immediately get up and go to the bathroom.

It wasn’t until the shriek from Taako that got Barry up, causing him to sit up with Lup still pressed next to him. 

“Wha happened?” He slurred, checking over her first. Seeing that she was still next to him, and that it wasn't her who had made the shriek, he looked over to the rest of the party who was still in the kitchen. Lup also turned her head, her hand now resting on that small bump that she really wanted to style more outfits around just to show it off a bit. 

She looked and saw that Magnus currently looked very apologetic, his hands still out in front of him from where she assumed he dropped the plate. Taako was right there, his hair mussed from his cat nap as he looked like he was about to scream again. Kravitz currently had a hand on Taako’s shoulder, rubbing circles into his back to coax him to not yell again. Everyone else was at the kitchen table, being the peanut gallery that they are. Just give them a bowl of popcorn and they would be perfect. 

Merle looked over to them and waved.

“Maggy dropped a plate which broke the cat bowl somehow.” He told them. Lup was only half paying attention, her mind way too tired to process what the hell was going on. Things broke. Okay. Cool. That worked for her. She would really like to go back to sleep if that was okay. 

“Asshole couldn’t wait to go to Fantasy Denny’s. He had to make himself a sandwich monstrosity!” This was obviously a Taako who had been rudely awakened. He wouldn’t be this mad over a plate if he had actually gotten the sleep he wanted. 

“I was hungry! I only had a small breakfast before coming here because I thought that we were going right when we got here. I didn’t know Lup didn’t sleep last night! Also it’s like one. Time for lunch anyway. Also, also, how was I supposed to know that the cat was right there!”

“You also stepped on Mistress Ebony?”

“I don’t remember which one, but sure?” Taako let out a distressed yell as he pointed his finger at Magnus, his face darkening with anger.

“That’s my precious baby, Magnus–”

At that moment someone put up a silence around Taako and Magnus so no one could hear the result of this argument. Davenport rubbed his temples a little bit as Lucretia took a long sip from her tea. Lucretia looked over and saw Lup looking at her, a soft smile forming on her features. 

“How was your nap?” She asked kindly, putting the cup down with a soft clank from the saucer she chose. 

“You know, it was pretty okay. Would’ve been better if I didn’t wake up from my brother’s screaming, but ya know, can’t win them all.” Lup shrugged a little, feeling her stomach flip just a bit. Fucking great way to wake up from her nap. She patted Barry’s arm urgently to alert him that if she didn’t make it to the bathroom in the next 30 seconds, she was going to upchuck whatever was in her stomach. He removed his arm around her and let her run off to the bathroom, following closely behind her. 

She stood over the toilet, waiting for it to happen with Barry holding back her hair already. She really didn’t expect to be still nauseous when she was this far along, but apparently it did happen to people. Apparently it happened to her. Gross.

It took another ten seconds before she started to upheave, and all that really came out was black bile from having basically nothing in her stomach. Barry just rubbed her back the entire time. She appreciated his support, especially when she started gagging once more. He pressed a kiss to her back, and rubbed it some more as she retched. Maybe she could get Merle to put on some ginger tea. That would be very nice, maybe quell her devil kids for a while. She took a shaky breath and lifted herself up to a standing position. She could feel another wave of nausea start to brew as she stood, she sighed deeply and closed her eyes. 

“Can you ask Merle to put on some of his ginger tea, please?” Her voice was hoarse, and all she wanted to do was to curl up on the bathroom floor and have another nap. 

“Of course. Do you need anything else?” 

“A change of clothes, maybe? Also my toothbrush. I’ll just chill in here until I stop feeling gross, kay?” She moved over to the counter and leaned herself up against it, making sure she was well in distance to the sink just in case her body decided to rebel. She knew that pregnancy wasn’t going to be all rainbows and sparkles, but she really didn’t anticipate all of this. Also her libido was low to non-existent, so she didn’t even get that. Fuck.

Barry kissed her head before leaving, to which she responded with a grateful grunt. She put her hand on her abdomen, hoping that maybe she’d stop being so nauseous if she gave them some attention. They may take more after her and Taako after all. 

“Please stop making Mama feel bad, that would be nice.” She murmured. She rubbed her abdomen, hoping beyond hoping that maybe the nausea would just go away. Alas, it didn’t help, and she ended up dry gagging again into the sink, trying to get anything up, but nothing came. By the gods, she hates this so much. She was over the moon that she was pregnant, of course, she and Barry had been trying for years. However, the nausea, the not sleeping, and the constant bathroom breaks sucked. 

The door to the bathroom opened again and in came Barry with her clothes and toothbrush in one hand and a mug of tea in the other. He set the mug on the bathroom counter, putting his hand on her back and began to rub it. Gods what a man. If she praised him, he’d only shrug and say it was the least he could do and that he was really doing the bare minimum. However, she had heard what the other women with husbands say in the classes. They’d laugh because this was their first pregnancy, of course he’d be attentive right now. However, if she were to have more, then he wouldn’t be so helpful. Hell, even some first time mom’s would laugh and say that their husbands weren’t as helpful as Barry, that it was sort of weird that he was so helpful. What was weird was that they thought it was normal for their husbands to not do anything. 

Another kiss and then a hug from behind her. Gods she was so in love with him.

“I’m sorry you’re not feeling well,” he murmured, putting his chin on her shoulder. His hands were on her abdomen on the small swell where he rubbed it. 

“I guess it comes with the territory, yeah? Just didn’t expect it to last this long.” Her arms were shaky as she rose again from the sink. Barry unraveled his arms from around her and rose with her. He rubbed her back again as she grabbed the mug from the bathroom counter. She put the mug to her lips and took a sip from it. She swished the ginger tea around in her mouth first before spitting it out in the sink just to get the taste of bile out from her mouth. It wasn’t perfect, but at least it was mildly better. She took another sip of her tea, swallowing this time, and hoping that the tea would help her. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah of course. You want me to stay here until you feel better?” He sat down on the lip of the tub, looking up at her as she slowly drank from the mug. She nodded, looking at the clothes he picked out for her. High waisted black leggings with a boxy white shirt. Good choices were made. She set the mug down and began to undress from her comfy pj’s. She looked at her stuff again noticing that Barry did in fact bring a bralette for her. What a man. 

She dressed quickly, noticing how Barry tried to be as respectful as possible. Even though they’ve been together for decades, Barry still found it important to give her the privacy she needed, regardless if she was just changing right in front of him. 

“Everything good?” He asked once she finished. 

“Yeah, perfect fit, Barry Blue. Thank you.” She went over to him, putting her hands on either side of his head and pressed a kiss to his lips. He returned it, a smile curling on his features. 

“Are you feeling better?”

“Pretending I am, more or less,” she admitted, shrugging her shoulders a bit. She walked the short distance back to the bathroom counter and picked the mug up again and took a small sip. “How’s the M.O. out there? Taako still screaming?”

Barry chuckled as got up from the tub lip and flushed the toilet. 

“Nah, he’s just fuming on the couch. Mistress Ebony is currently perched on his lap purring rather loudly.” She moved slightly out of the way so Barry could get the toilet bowl cleaner out. They stayed in the bathroom until Barry was done with cleaning the bowl and washing his hands. All while Lup took tentative sips from her tea. 

“He’ll be like that until Magnus apologizes to him. How Mag’s will apologize? Who knows! But hopefully it’s the right apology.” She smirked at Barry a little bit and set her nearly empty cup on the counter, feeling less nauseous than before. Now however, her stomach was growling from hunger and she so wanted eggs and avocado. Also bacon. She would also like some tabasco sauce on all of that. 

“Your mouth is watering. What are they craving?” At this point, Barry knew when it was her wanting the food versus when it was the two in her requesting. Usually it’s a pretty clear sign of her mouth not wanting to close and her eyes glazing over a bit. She shook her head and sighed a little bit. 

“Avocados, eggs, bacon, all smothered in tabasco sauce.” She rubbed her temples a little bit. “And I mean smothered smothered. This makes the chef in me cry a little bit.”

“I’m sure you’re going to get a horrified screech from Taako over this one, even though it’s the least offensive so far.” Barry put the cleaner back under the sink. “Remember just last week your craving for a bowl of just sriracha?”

“Taako wouldn’t let that go for four days, babe. I still hear him talk about it to Kravitz at night.” She groaned, rolling her eyes in the process. “Don’t even get me started on his reaction to the seaweed wraps.”

“You mean how you ate dried seaweed with green olives wrapped in them?” Lup groaned as she leaned up against Barry, her head on his shoulder. His chest vibrated as a laugh erupted from him.

“Our kids are fucking gross, Barry! They don’t know how to pair their foods! What the fuck is wrong with them? You’d think with two people who can cook in their family, they’d just know how to not be gross with food. But no, they torture their poor mother with their terrible tastes!” It was mostly in jest, but she was perturbed by her kids taste in foods. Hopefully years without the food will make them realize how gross it was. One could hope.

“To be fair, they could get it from me. Sounds like something college aged Barry would’ve eaten. In fact I feel like I did after having one too many sleepless nights during my thesis.”

“Disgusting. How does it feel to have food crimes on top of death crimes?”

“I think one of those things have been….waved in a sense, so only one of those still stands. However, you’ve also committed said crimes, so.” He raised his eyebrows at her as she frowned and pushed herself off from him. She crossed her arms and wrinkled her nose. 

“You know, I’m only experiencing this because your taste bud genetics are cursed as fuck. I don’t count this, Barold, because as soon as they’re out of my hot ass bod, then I won’t be eating that shit anymore.” She booped his nose lightly before turning to the sink again and began to wash her hands. Barry pressed a kiss to her temple, causing her to hum contentedly. 

A rude knock interrupted their little moment, the knocker fast and impatient for whatever reason.

“Can you two assholes hurry the fuck up? Magnus is starting to eat all the food in the fridge and his combinations are worse than yours, Lup! I’m getting sick just by looking at it.” 

“Hold on, bitch, I’m vomiting!”

“Fucking gross, hoe!” She snickered as she heard him leave, turning back to Barry as he just shook his head. 

“Our kids are gonna come out cursing.” Despite his disappointed tone of voice, he was smiling. He hip checked her gently as she let him have a turn on washing his hands. 

“So, cursed taste buds, and also a cursed mouth. Seems like the right mix between the two of us.” They both nodded sagely at one another before bursting out in a bright laughter together. Gods, she knew that she shouldn’t be laughing this hard, not if she wanted an accident. She took hold of the bathroom counter, trying to steady her breathing to stop her laughter. 

Barry took a deep breath with her, no doubt also knowing that if she laughed too hard then he’d have to get her new bottoms. He took a deep breath with her, holding in his breath as she did the same. Then, slowly, the exhaled slowly together. They still had smirks on their faces, but the laughter stopped. 

“Wanna get out of here so Taak’s doesn’t lose anymore of his shit?” Barry held out his hand to her, and she immediately took hold of it, smiling brightly at him.

“Fuck yeah, let’s go.”

* * *

They were all waiting to be called back into the room. They had arrived there with three minutes to spare, as their breakfast for lunch went a little longer than anticipated. Some people had recognized them and bombarded them with questions, autographs, and pictures. It was at times like that she was glad she had grabbed a looser fitting jacket to cover her bump up just a little bit more. She and Barry hadn’t really announced to the public that they were expecting, and nor did they really want to. Obviously eventually it was going to get out, but for right now, they wanted to enjoy this moment where only them and their family knew. Well, their family and the people at the birthing class. However, they didn’t really put two and two together that they were Lup and Barry, two out of the seven birds just chilling in their birth class. Works out great for them. 

Magnus was up out of his chair every second, jumping up when he saw something that caught his eye. Like the pictures of babies, the poster explaining pregnancy and how the baby grows, the diagram of the baby growing in utero. He played with the statues a little bit, poking at them, and picked up one of the baby statues and presented it over to them. Davenport would just remind him to not break anything, especially when he decided to juggle two of the baby statues at once. He swore he was practicing for the real thing.

Everyone else was more or less waiting in the chairs, Taako shaking his leg a little bit as he talked to Kravitz in a low hushed tone. Lup really couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she was sure that it was going to come out at dinner that night. He’ll probably cut family day short and say it was because she was tired and too much excitement for unborn babies is bad or something. He kept glancing over to her, and it was starting to grate on her a little bit, whether that was the hormones or how she actually felt or a mixture of both, she didn’t know yet. She’d check back in on that emotion later. She’ll probably take him aside if it continues on for much further.

Lucretia was sketching something in her notebook, what she didn’t really know. However, she was so immersed in what she was doing, that she didn’t even look up to see Magnus nearly breaking the baby statue. Her eyebrows were wrinkled together as she concentrated which made Lup smile. She didn’t have time to draw as much when she was rebuilding and rebranding the BoB, so to see her going back to what she loved to do was comforting. Almost like everything was falling into place. 

Merle was outside talking on his Stone of Farspeech to Mavis and Mookie. They had called in the car and were still talking to him, which was also nice to see. She was glad that Merle was now trying to be a better father figure to his children, as he had always been an albeit weird father figure to her. 

Davenport was reading a magazine while looking up every so often to see what Magnus was doing. If he saw something he didn’t exactly approve of, he would sigh and shake his head and return back to the magazine. She believed it was a catalogue about ships, but she could be wrong. Maybe he was thinking of getting a new ship? It could be that. 

Barry was holding her hand as they were all waiting to be called back. He’d squeeze it a couple of times every so often, making her look at him and they’d share a smile. She rested her head on his shoulder, suddenly feeling very drained from it all and closed her eyes, waiting. 

“Lup Bluejeans?” Her head bolted up from Barry’s shoulder and looked to the door where the nurse was. She waved at them as she started to gather her things up with Barry tailing right behind her. She heard Magnus put something down roughly as he hurried back over to them. He was absolutely buzzing with energy, a huge smile beaming on his face. 

“You guys ready?” Lup asked as she hoisted her bag. Taako and Kravitz made no effort to move from their spot, and neither did Lucretia, who just kept drawing away in her notebook. 

“We’re not going in. Just take Maggie inside so he can see the demons in real time.” Taako answered, waving his hand a little bit. She could feel some anger boil up in her from just being waved off like that. She took a deep breath in, trying to not lose her cool with him and just nodded.

“Same for you, Cap?” 

“Yeah, I think Lucretia and I have some things to discuss.” He answered, a twinkle in his eye as he said it. Huh, a few hours ago everyone wanted to be in the room with them, now they dwindled it down to just Magnus? Something was going on, she could just feel it. She gave them a skeptical look as Davenport just smirked a little bit. She just twisted her mouth to the side and wrinkled her eyebrows at him. 

“Okay. We’ll see you after!” She tried not to let it show that she was a little disappointed that they had all bailed on seeing the twins. Sure, they probably had their reasons, but she was looking forward to showing off her and Barry’s most recent projects. She smiled towards the nurse who was waiting by the door for them, a clipboard in hand. Magnus was giddily talking to Barry over what he hoped they would be doing. 

“Do you think they’d be like kicking each other? Or like maybe they’d be holding each other’s hands? That would be so sweet! What have they typically been doing in there, Barry?” Magnus was full of enthusiasm over what they could potentially see in there, and she appreciated it, she really did. She just really doubted that they’d be doing all that much. She was almost 18 weeks along, sure, but she hasn’t even felt them move yet. Kicking seems like something that would happen much later, especially since they’d be fighting over space at that point. 

“I dunno, bud. For all we know, they’ll be taking a little nap. They were up all night giving their Mom hell.” Barry squeezed her hand a bit as she rolled her eyes. 

“If it’s not nausea then it’s my bladder. I can’t win with them.” That got her a laugh from the nurse who opened another door to their room. 

“I’m afraid I can’t offer you any remedy to the bladder situation and the nausea just depends on the person. What have you tried so far?”

“Some ginger tea. That seems to work the most right now. I hope it won’t last for too much longer.” She sat down at one of the chairs, putting her bag on the floor as Barry took the spot next to her. Magnus was too riled up to sit, he decided it was time to check the room out. 

“Ah good! Well, just sit tight. Someone will be in to get your vitals and then escort you back to the ultrasound technician, okay?” The nurse smiled at her and she smiled back. 

“Yeah, sounds great!” The nurse left, leaving them in silence. Barry shuffled a bit in her bag and pulled out her water bottle. She gratefully took it from him, puckering her lips together to signal to him to please give her a kiss. He smiled at her before planting his lips on hers to give her a quick chaste kiss. She couldn’t help but smile back at him as she pulled away, uncapping her water bottle before taking a long swig of water. She capped her bottle again, putting it down by her feet before capturing Barry’s hand and pressing a kiss to his knuckles. He squeezed her hand and she caught from the corner of her eye another smile from him. 

They carried on, Lup pulled out a magazine to look through and Barry looked at some work stuff. Magnus was looking through some of the stuff they had just sitting in jars like cotton swabs and the wooden spoons they used to check tonsils. Lup didn’t really mind his curiosity, she trusted him enough to not break anything too drastically. He was just excited to be able to experience this moment, that’s why he was so full of energy. 

“You think they would mind if I took some of these?” Magnus asked, raising up the wooden stick jar. Lup looked over from her magazine, it was really just supposed to help her get nursery ideas, even though she was certain that they weren’t going to have their own room until they were toddler aged. She raised her eyebrow at it and put her lips in a line. Barry also looked over with her, his eyebrows crinkling together.

“I mean I’m sure they have plenty? But why do you want them?” Barry asked.

“I have a project.” He wouldn’t offer any more explanation than that. She knew that, she spent over 100 years on a ship with him after all. 

“I mean….have at it, I guess. Just don’t get caught, kay?” She added in a wink for good measure, to which Magnus smiled broadly and pulled out a bag from his pack pocket. A bag of holding. What the fuck was going on. “Mags, why do you have a bag of holding?”

His eyes went to the left a little bit and his hands jittered just slightly. He went from his heel to the tip of his toes, the tell tale sign that he was about to lie. 

“What? I can’t have a bag of holding just for looks?” His voice sounded a little more pitched and there was a little waver to his cadence. She gave him a look that she knew translated loudly that she didn’t believe a single word he said. Yeah Mags could have a bag of holding just for the Look™ but this was not the case this time. 

She was about to press him more when there was another knock at the door and in came another nurse, loaded with all the materials needed for this part of the appointment. The nurse greeted them kindly, gave the rundown of how she was feeling and offered a way to help the nausea. She nodded at them, presented her arm as they took her blood pressure as Magnus asked questions as to why they needed to do that. The nurse cleaned her finger with an alcohol wipe and pricked it quickly. She heard Magnus make a noise of displeasure as he looked away. He asked Barry why they had to do  _ that _ in a stage whisper. Barry replied that they were just checking on her blood sugars, making sure everything was where it should be. 

“But when can we see them?” Magnus asked as the nurse was leaving. He had been patient in that question, and honestly Lup was just anxious to see them as well. She knew she shouldn’t be fretting, but she hadn’t felt them move yet, even though everyone at birthing class told her she might not even feel them at first. She just thought since there were two in there, then maybe she would’ve felt some movement earlier than most. Maybe they had moved and she just thought it was gas. They did tell her that could be a possibility. 

“In a sec, I’m sure. We’ll be brought back to the tech, they just gotta check in on some stuff first.” She was trying to hide her anxiety. She had been in plenty of anxious situations in her long life and undeath. Between being on a journey for way longer she anticipated, fighting the Hunger, creating relics in order to stop the Hunger once and for all, and then having those relics destroy the very world they were trying to protect. Trying to secure her relic, and then ending up in her own spell focus as her family forgot all about her and about the 100 year long journey they had all experienced. Having her marriage crumple after getting her body back due to unresolved issues. Yeah, she’s had her share of anxieties, and now this one is added to the list due to her brain loving to flood her with a million and one possibilities. What if they couldn’t find a heartbeat? What if one twin was a week behind in development? What if they were both behind in development? The list really went on, but those three really loved to pop up every week. It was difficult when she was trying to sleep at night. Maybe when she actually started feeling them kick then her anxieties would be cleared a bit. Maybe she should talk to Ashe about these anxieties. It’d be a good idea. She talked to Barry about it and he shared in her anxieties and admitted that he had gone to Ashe about it already. She knew that they were high on guard about it and she was glad that Barry was seeing where he needed to get help in order to ease his own anxieties a bit. 

It was shortly after they were called back into the tech room and they all started to walk the all too familiar trek down. They were talking about how they’d know their test results at the end of the appointment. Their doctor will come in and discuss everything with them, all the good stuff. But, they were assured that everything so far looked good so far. She felt Barry’s hand slip into her hand and gave it a little squeeze. He knew that she was getting herself worked up. Anything could be happening, and she knew that they were doing everything they could to make sure that they would get here healthy. She rubbed her hand on her abdomen again, low key trying to prompt one of them to actually kick her hand a little bit. They didn’t, or maybe they did and she just didn’t know because she didn’t know what to look out for. 

They were led in the room and Lup propped herself on the bed, knowing the routine by now. The nurse told them that the tech would be in there soon, and then left. She looked over at Barry and smiled at him, laying herself back and already lifting her shirt up. It was mostly because she just wanted to see her belly. It had grown a lot since she and Barry found out, which reassured her since it showed they were growing. She looked back over at Barry who just had his eyes on her belly, smiling softly. She couldn’t help just melt at his expression, his eyes were just so full of love, the same way he looked at her but just different. She couldn’t explain it, but oh gods it made her fall in love with him all over again. She held out her hand to him and he took it gently, squeezing it just so that still made her get butterflies in her stomach. She lightly pressed a kiss to his knuckles.

Magnus let out a retching noise behind them, causing her to pause from kissing Barry’s knuckles a second time and frowning at the offender. Barry also looked over his shoulder and shook his head. 

“Can’t we just love each other in peace?” Barry asked, a tid bit of embarrassment of being caught lacing his voice. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been caught before just cuddling each other on the couch on the Starblaster. Nothing too major in the common rooms. They saved most of their major PDA in the lab and their room. It was just what made them feel more comfortable. Especially if they were just caught cuddling on the couch, then someone would always make a noise about how they were too lovey dovey. 

“I’m pretty sure you exposed how much you love each other right there,” Magnus told them, gesturing to Lup’s belly. It was their turn to make a retching noise at that.

“Ew, Magnus, that’s gross!” She yelled out, wrinkling her nose in distaste. Sure, she knew how they got there, yeah, sure, but at the same time to have someone say that so blatantly….disgusting. She didn’t want her brother talking about her and Barry’s sex life like that. Way too weird and way too much information for her taste, thank you very much.

“It’s true though! You can’t just say you didn’t when the proof’s right there!”   


“Not everyone gets a baby through that way, bud.” Barry’s face was getting redder by the second, the hold on her hand getting tighter and more sweaty. It had already made him uncomfortable when he found out his Mom had extended her house for their own soundproof wing, but now Magnus was talking about all of this. Putting in perspective just what conspired between the two of them and eugh. Her love for Barry was strong, and their more personal life was healthier than it has ever been in the past few years, and kept looking good from each day. Though, she really didn’t need her baby brother telling her about all of this. 

As luck would have it, the technician came in just then, saving them from their embarrassment. Thank Istus that She saw this trainwreck go down and gave them some mercy. The technician smiled at them warmly as they sat themself down at the machine in front of them.

“How we feeling this week? Same old same old?” The tech smiled at them as they got their tools together, hand already on the gel that would go on her belly. 

“More or less,” Lup answered, having to clear her throat as it came out as more of a squeak. “The cravings have been really kicking in now, a lot of the weird cravings.”

“Oh, what was it this week?” The tech put the gel on her belly. She winced slightly at the cold gel, wrinkling her nose a bit as she tried to get used to it. 

“Fantasy Hot Cheetos, jerky, with avocado on top. She couldn’t get enough of it.” Barry answered, squeezing her hand again before loosening his hold on her slightly.

“You’d think that these kiddos would actually know what good food was, but no. They’re addicted to weird ass combinations for whatever reason.” Lup rolled her eyes good naturedly as the tech laughed, their shoulders rising just a little bit. They grabbed the wand, and put it on her belly, giving it a few swirls before settling it down. 

They were bigger from last week, by just a bit, but seeing that had Lup breathing easier again. She wasn’t an ultrasound technician or anything, but she thought they were about the same size, so there didn’t seem to be any twin to twin transfusions as of yet, which was the only reason why they were getting checkups every week in the first place.

“There they are.” The tech smiled, letting the wand stay still on her belly. They pressed a few buttons and suddenly they all heard heartbeats going at it. The tech hovered over one baby for a second, and then to the other, nodding their head. “Both of them sound good.”

The tech continued to do some measurements nodding as they noted that they were both growing well and on time. One baby seemed a little small, apparently, but that was to be expected from twins, and they would just keep an eye on that one. Barry pressed a kiss to her knuckles, feeling some of the tears fall down his cheeks. 

There was a loud sniffle that had Lup looking over at Magnus, who was openly crying as he was looking at the screen. 

“You okay there, Mags?”   


“They’re just….they’re right there! They’re so creepy, yet at the same time, they’re beautiful!” He sobbed, another loud sniff sounded through the room. She had to agree with him there, they were kind of creepy in the womb, especially right now where they could see their bones and their heartbeats going a mile a minute. 

The tech just smiled warmly at them again as they scoped over the two of them, double checking measurements. 

“And you both are still set on not knowing the sexes?” 

“Yeah, not really on our mind. More so concerned about any transfusion happening between them, ya know?” Lup answered, looking up at the screen and seeing them start to move around a bit. “Though, I do gotta ask if their placenta is in the back or front?”

“Anxious about feeling them move? Yeah, we get that a lot. It looks to be posterior, so you could feel them move a lot more.” The tech smiled as they took the wand off from her belly and gave Lup a napkin to wipe off the gel. She gladly took it and wiped it off, pulling her shirt down in the process. “I’ll make sure to get these pictures printed and to put them in your folder up front. Your room where you just were is where you’ll get the debrief from the doctor.”

It didn’t take long for the tech to leave them after that, the screen still had the two of them up, but now frozen in the moment. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes as looked at them. They were so tiny still, but everything had looked good. They were measuring well, heartbeats were both there and thriving. She still couldn’t believe that this was happening. She’s been expecting any day now that she would wake up one day and everything would be gone and that this was just some cruel dream. However, the constant trips to the bathroom and her ever changing center of gravity told her it wasn’t a dream. 

She sat back up on the bed, Barry hovering over her to make sure that she didn’t topple back onto the bed on accident. It happened more than once when she was trying to get up from their own bed, and she was sure it was going to happen a lot more as she progressed. 

“So?” She asked Magnus as soon as she was all the way up, smoothing down her shirt just a little bit more. It was more so an excuse to touch her belly. She gave it a little pat, really trying to encourage any sort of feeling of movement she could get from them. Especially since the tech said that she may be able to feel them more. Magnus was sniffling and still looking at the projection of both of them on the wall, using his hands to wipe away his tears.

“They’re just….so little!” He blubbered as he looked at them. One baby was facing their twin while the other was showing them their backside. Now that picture was going on the fridge at home. “And they’re just right there! That’s so wild!” Magnus turned to look at her now, his finger pointing at her belly. 

“Yup, they’re all right there.” Barry smiled down at her and rubbed her back a little bit. She pressed herself into his touch a little bit, sighing deeply. “I mean, we can check in with everyone else, but I don’t think they’re hungry yet, how about you, Lu? You barely ate before.”

Lup thought about it. She had been a little too nauseous earlier to really enjoy anything. Really, she just kept her head on Barry’s shoulder as she tried to ignore it the best she could. Maybe it had just been her nerves before her appointment. Or maybe they just really wanted to make her feel nauseous, who knew. 

“I still really want to eat that thing I was craving earlier. They still really want it.” She answered, now sitting up from Barry’s touch and carefully getting off from the bed. “Think Cap will do a pit stop for me so I can order to go?”

“I think so. He wouldn’t say no to you, especially now. Also especially when you give him a print of them.”

“True. Now that’s a wild move.  _ Hey Cap! You better get me some food or else you won’t get a picture of our kids _ . A fucking wild move.” She adjusted her pants a bit, trying to find the comfortable spot that she had before. She really needed to start getting serious about maternity clothes. Sure, she’s shopped a little bit for them, but it was just to browse more than to actually buy anything for. Besides, none of the styles really suited her. Maybe she should just make her own maternity clothes that fit around what she likes to wear, and not so much shirts proclaiming how big of a Mama Bear she was. Not that there was anything wrong with it, sometimes they were cute. But the influx of all of them in one section was too overwhelming for her sometimes. 

Barry chuckles at that as they begin to leave the room, Magnus walking backwards to keep his eyes on the projection as they leave.

Lup could hear Magnus practically buzzing down the hall as they walked back to their first room to listen to what the doctor needed to say to them. She could hear his excited humming as they came into sight of the door. It was sweet how excited he was about this, she knew that she had talked to him a little about Julia and what they had planned on before everything went the way it did. Apparently they had planned to adopt a child two years into their marriage and then maybe more down the line. She had always known that Magnus had a big heart for kids, even when he was goofing on Tesseralia with the kids he was coaching, she knew. He would’ve been a really fun dad if he had been given the chance. 

He’ll be a super fun uncle, something that she knows with how he interacts with Angus. She especially knew how he started bawling at the projection of the two little ones. It’ll be nice to have two babies in the family. It was something that none of them had experienced before, so it’ll be yet another adventure for all of them. Barry opened the door to the room and let her in first, she stuck her tongue out at him as she entered, crinkling her nose playfully and giving him a weird wink. He rolled his eyes slightly at her antics, a breathy laugh escaping him for just a moment as he let Magnus in. 

She settled herself down on the bed, this time just sitting on it. The paper crinkled, the sound absolutely deafening in the quiet sterile room that they were in. 

“So, what’s going to happen now?” Magnus asked, taking a seat on one of the chairs in the room. He didn’t last long until he was jumping up from the chair again and checking around the room once again, looking at the jar with all the sticks and cotton balls in them.

“Doctor’s just gonna debrief us. Maybe start talking about our birth plan more and what they think is best.” Lup picked at the paper, rubbing it between her fingers to try to quell her sudden influx of anxiety. She didn’t really mind how they got here, just as long as they got here as healthily as possible. She knew that the recovery was going to be rough, and had heard about that from some of the people who had already had kids in her birthing classes. She and Barry had discussed both cases, and it was gearing more towards her getting surgery just due to the fact that since there were two, there was more of a chance of one of them being breech.

“Oh….do you know which one you’re doing?” She appreciated Magnus’ question a lot. She really did, but she was feeling her stomach flip over it. She knew the answer practically, but that didn’t stop her from getting scared. She really tried not to think much of getting surgery, it was terrifying, especially what the people in her birth class had told her about what went down. The recovery process was even worse, especially with taking care of a baby. It was terrifying to think about, especially with her job. She knew that the Raven Queen wouldn’t push her too hard with coming back to work, She would want Lup to be fully recovered before coming back in. The last thing that She would want is for her to get hurt while on a bounty, especially since she was going to have two people very much dependent on her. 

Lup took a deep breath in, feeling all of her nerves frazzled every which way. She felt like a cat who had just had their fur brushed the wrong way. She hadn’t noticed that Barry had come over to her until she felt his hand in hers and he gave it a reassuring squeeze. He was just as nervous as she was with this whole thing. On one hand she would like to not have a major surgery, on the other she knew that it was possibly her only choice. She knew that if she insisted on not doing the surgery and did it naturally, then she would feel guilty if anything had happened to either or both of them. It was just safer.

“We're pretty much certain that we’re going to have surgery. It’s just the safest option for the both of them in case anything were to happen.” Lup tried to sound casual about it, but there was a tenseness in her voice. The recovery was what she was tense about the most. It wasn’t that she was afraid of the scar that it would leave behind, she didn’t really care about all that. She really was just afraid of not being able to take care of her kids as fully she wanted to. Either way she would be sore, but still….the people at her birth class had told her all about it. They told her she wouldn’t really be able to lift her kids as much as she wanted to and that she would be in pain and if she moved the wrong way then she could pop a stitch and that it would itch.

It wasn’t like the natural way wasn’t as pretty, both recoveries sucked. It still left her with a bundle of nerves since she was afraid that she wouldn’t bond with her kids as much as she would like since she would be down for the count for a bit. Also, Barry would be on his own for a bit while she rested up. 

Magnus just nodded at that, his eyebrows furrowed just a bit. No one liked the idea of surgery, but if it meant that babes will be delivered safer through that way, then that was best. 

The door opened and the doctor walked in holding their files. A smile was on their face as they closed the door behind them. 

“All the reports look good, but let’s talk about the birth plan, shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's still Tuesday in my heart I say for the second week in the row
> 
> thank you for reading/kudosing/commenting! It really means the world to me! 
> 
> This was not edited because my brain decided to fuzz out and say "nope <3" all week long


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still....Tuesday.....in.....my.....heart.......

Lup was back in Ash’s office pacing away a week after her appointment. She had a pensive look on her face, biting her tongue as she thought about what to talk about. She had no idea how to phrase what she wanted to say to them, so she just kept pacing. 

Ash for their part kept their eyes fixated on what they were working on, not making a move to initiate the conversation. She appreciated that about them, always had, it had always reassured her that she didn’t have to talk if she didn’t want to, and that they wouldn’t push her. 

Finally after thinking for a moment she went over to the violin Ash kept for her if she scheduled her appointment ahead of time and picked it up. Maybe her thoughts would be able to smooth over if she just played for a bit. The fit of this violin wasn’t as nice as her own personal violin, but she appreciated that Ash brought one in. She couldn’t always just lug her own violin around all the time, also her strings still needed to be fixed from a performance she did with Barry and Kravitz after dinner one night. It had turned more into a battle than a performance between them, with her sharing a team with Barry. Taako joined in with one of his older spoon sets to join Kravitz’s side. It had all ended when Taako lost one of his spoons, Kravitz clogged his trumpet with too much spit, Barry hit a dull note on his piano, and Lup’s strings busted on her. They called it a draw and would pick it up once that was all fixed.

She played the violin, at first a little tentative, almost questioning. She’s been stewing on for a week now, but she was still unsure of what to actually do and how to address the situation. She didn’t even know where to start, really. She felt that things were really gearing up now and she didn’t have enough time to really plan for anything. They had found out about them really late in the pregnancy, and now it feels like they could be coming at any time. They were really trying to make it to 36 weeks and that was only 15 weeks away. She felt like she hadn’t had any time to plan anything. She and Barry still needed to clear out the spare room to make something up which they’d been saying for about 2 weeks now. 

She was stressed about so many things. Between the birth plan and the looming surgery. She felt so not prepared for them. She didn’t even have a sufficient wardrobe for them yet. She knew that there was still time, but she could see that time fly by as it had since when she had found out. On top of all of that, she was growing restless from staying at home all the time. She had some file work, but it was nothing compared to actually being out in the field. Maybe she should start doing light exercises at a gym so she was out of the house more and it wasn’t just her going back and forth to birth class and doctor appointments. Well, until 25 weeks she wouldn’t be back at the doctors. Fuck.

She accidentally pressed too roughly on the strings making a terrible screeching noise that made her ears ring. She immediately put the violin down, her nose wrinkling. 

“Oh, now that’s interesting.” Ash tapped their pen on their drawing pad, a frown on their face. “You really don’t have a lot of non-baby focus activities right now. Huh.”

“Wow, Ash, thanks. Love that for us.” Lup plopped down on the couch and sighed in deeply. She couldn’t fold over as comfortably anymore, her belly was now officially in the way and it seemed to have grown in a week. She was now relying heavily on leggings and loose shirts. She really needed to pick up some more maternity clothes.

“It wasn’t meant to be a judgement, dear, just an observation. Also a major reason as to why you’re so stressed. You don’t have anything that relieves your mind from these thoughts. Sure, you may have your jam sessions every so often, but that’s what? Maybe once every other week? I don’t think you were able to fix your string from your last jam?”

Lup nodded guiltily. She had fully intended on getting it fixed a lot sooner, but it had slipped her mind as she was once again thinking about everything the doctor said and going over their plan in her head. It kept her up most nights, something that she knew Barry knew since he would wake up with her. 

“And Barry and you haven’t really talked about much of anything else since you found out.” They had said it like such a fact that Lup was sure Ash was spilling some serious stuff. 

“Isn’t that like….confidential information? You aren’t really allowed to leak that about clints….?”

“It’s not confidential if it was all in your piece, dear. You spilled the beans on that one.” Lup pursed her lips together and nodded. Yup….she guessed that she did do that. “What have you two been doing?”

“I mean, we still talk….just most of our time together is now about them because they’ve been on our minds more. We normally go out to lunch….after appointments. And normally our lunch dates are just us gushing over them because they are really cute. Do you want an updated sonogram? They’re really starting to look less like weird blobs!”

“You can give it to me on your way out,” Ash had gone back to drawing at this time, the sound of their pencil on the paper relaxing Lup against the couch. “Perhaps if you both tried to spend more quality time with just the two of you? I know that’s hard with the impending arrivals, but I think that’d be good for you. I also think it’d be a good idea to have that with your brother.”

“My brother? Has he said anything to you?”

“Now that’s confidential, dear.” Ash peered at their drawing for a moment. “It could be a good idea, and it would take your mind off of them.”

Lup nodded. Ash was right about that….and maybe she already had a game. 

* * *

Lup, Barry, Taako, and Kravitz all sat around their kitchen table a week later. Lup, Taako, and Kravitz all had several pieces of paper in front of them with small notes all scribbled down on them. Barry for his part had a little shield up in front of him as he was busy scribbling something down on his own piece of paper and hadn’t looked at them since they all sat down two hours earlier. 

Taako was tapping his pencil a little bit on the table, looking at the paper in front of him with feigned disinterest. When she had brought up this game to him after her session last week, he pretended not to be excited about it. She knew that he was trying to quell his excitement, she knew that he had been missing spending time with her that wasn’t about the pregnancy. She had also missed spending time with him, and this seemed like as good a time as any. It was reassuring that the public had yet to find out about the new arrivals somehow. It was fortunate that the clinic was sworn to secrecy and that apparently the people at her birthing class didn’t put two and two together that Barry and Lup had the same names as two of the saviors of the worlds. However, it could just be because they didn’t expect to be in the same presence of two of the birds. It could’ve just gone over their heads a little bit. She knew that it would’ve gone over hers if she were in their position. 

Kravitz was still dutifully writing things down and checking the book off to his side to make sure of something. His mouth was set in a frown and his shoulders were hunched completely down which couldn’t be good for his posture. Then again, who was she to judge him on his terrible posture when she was currently sitting with her feet on her chair and leaning on the back of it as much as she could. She had already finished what she wanted to get done an hour into their prep, having worked on it prior when she was having a bad case of insomnia. So, now she was just waiting on everyone else to be done as she poked at her belly some. Maybe it was to encourage movement. Or maybe she was just bored and her stomach was growling and she didn’t want to deal with that at the moment. 

A hand swatted at her hand as she made another attempt to poke at her belly. She turned to see Taako shaking his head at her and tutted his tongue. 

“Stop that!” He hissed at her. Barry and Kravitz made no movement to signal to her that they had heard him. She rolled her eyes at him and swatted his hand away from her as she adjusted in her chair to sit up a bit more. 

“It’s just weird to look at!” It was true. Her body had been changing so much recently that it was hard to recognize herself some days. As it was she felt like her abdomen tripled in size since last week. Her bump was no longer barely there, it was there as plain as day now, and she felt like it was the first thing anyone saw of her at this point. She had finally given in and purchased some maternity clothes after her appointment. She stuck with loose fitting clothes, though just in case someone with a camera happened to see her out and about. It wouldn’t be long before someone did find out, then it’ll be all over the place. As it was the season had begun anew where all the magazines were coming out saying that she was pregnant. This time, however, they were right. 

“I mean yeah, you’re telling me.” Taako got up from his spot and over to the fridge. “Anyone want anything? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so consider yourselves lucky and use it!”

“He said that 42 years ago,” Barry mumbled under his breath, still working furiously on his notes.

“What was that, Barold?”

“I said that I would like a coffee, please!”

“You’re lucky I’m in such a good mood to not hold that comment against you. What about you, babe? You want anything? Maybe some sort of red wine?” Taako was now looking in the fridge getting out some snacks. He was picking out all of Lup’s recent cravings which included green olives and pickles covered in hot sauce. She was also craving cups full of nothing but ice which gods really sounded great right now. Kravitz hummed in response to the red wine as he concentrated on his work, double checking his book once again. 

“Taako, can you get me some ice pretty please?” She whined, pulling herself forward in her chair to lean on the table as best as she could. She didn’t really have to whine, she knew that, but she liked the added effect of whining to just grate her brother’s gears a bit. For his part, Taako gave her the most  _ “I’m so fucking done with your shit right now” _ look that he could muster. She pouted a bit as she put her head in her hands. “I’m seriously craving some right now!”

“You’re always craving something now!”

“And it’s not my fault, I have two beings sucking nutrients from me right now and my body is telling me I need to replenish some things!” 

“And all of that so called replenishment is cursed food that has Auntie rolling in her fucking grave! Come on, she taught you better than that!”

“I don’t choose what I crave, Taako. It’s all based on what my body needs.” 

“I’m pretty sure some of those food combinations are just to spite me. There is no way that peanut butter and seaweed is something that you actually craved.”

“Why would I voluntarily put that in my body if I wasn’t for real craving it?”

“Will you two please stop bickering? I’m trying to concentrate on this.” Kravitz interrupted, not looking away from his sheet. “Seriously, Barry, doesn’t this distract you just a little bit?”

Barry finally looked up from his sheets, a pure look of confusion on his face as he did. Something told her that Barry had no idea what was going on because he turned on his concentrating bubble. It was difficult during the first few years on the ship when he concentrated like that because no one could get through to him. Once he was in the zone, he was lost to the world. It took a few years to navigate through it, but they found their rhythm with one another when Barry started opening up to them more and when Lup cut him some slack from her teasing. 

“Uhh, not anymore. I sort of just started to block them out when they get like this. No offense, Lup, I just–”

“No need to apologize, Barry Blue, I get it. Also you look really cute when you’re in deep thought like that, so it’s a win-win.” Lup blew him a kiss to which he responded to by grabbing the air and putting the kiss to his heart like the sap he is. She heard Taako make a gagging noise as he got some ice from the dispenser. 

“We can’t make it two minutes without you two being disgusting can we?” Taako plopped the ice cup in front of her, placing a kiss on Kravitz’s head before going back to the kitchen and getting all the other drinks. 

“Like you’re one to fucking talk!” Lup took an ice cube from the cup and chewed on it which earned her a groan from Kravitz as she once again interrupted his thought flow. She mildly felt bad for him, that was until the second ice cube entered her mouth and suddenly she was feeling a lot better than she had been. Gods it hit differently whenever she decided to listen to her cravings instead of thwarting them off. 

“I can talk, it’s different between Kravitz and I. We’re Faerun’s most charming couple for the past I don’t know, 6 years was it, babe?” Taako placed Barry’s coffee down in front of him which rewarded him a quick thank you from him. He also placed Kravitz’s wine down next to him and settled down back in his spot. “So we have every excuse to be disgusting, sister dear, catch the fuck up.”

For her part, Lup just rolled her eyes as she shifted her attention to Barry who was now hidden away from his screen again. Gods when she had brought up this idea to him he had been so excited to start. Apparently he’s been wanting to do this for a while but didn’t know how to bring it up. Her most handsome nerd. She sighed as she looked at him, popping another ice cube in her mouth.

“Hey, handsome, you wanna tell me all the secrets to your campaign?” She got a breathy laugh from Barry as she could see the top of his head shake at that.

“If I were to tell you that, then it wouldn’t be fun anymore. Also it’s not very fair to Taako and Kravitz.”

“Here, that’s where you’re wrong, lover. Kravitz would expose all his secrets to his campaign to Taako in a heartbeat. Just look at how easily it took him to drop those death charges on them, and all it took was a little date of bad pottery and probably even worse wine.”

“Need I remind you that I literally saved your asses from the eternal stockade? Because I fucking did that.” Taako interjected, pinching Lup’s arm just a little bit, which earned him a pinch on his hand which caused him to holler overdramatically. “Now I wish I gave you to the Eternal Stockade! At least I wouldn’t be treated like this!”

“Stop being such a baby, we really don’t need any training from you. Seriously, BB, It’s fine to tell your most breathtaking wife some of your secrets.” She fluttered her eyelashes a little bit to emphasize her point. Barry peeked up at that moment, looking like he was about to say something when he totally stopped, his mouth agape with lost words, with a blush creeping up to his face. Even after all this time, she’s still got it. As she fucking should.

“Gods, Lup, come on, you know I can’t say no to you when you do that!” Lup grinned, she knew full well. Barry breathed in and closed his eyes. “Love of my undeath, it wouldn’t be as fun if you knew everything, so the answer has to be no.”

Lup pouted at that as she shoved another ice cube into her mouth. Taako snickered from behind her. He did have a point that it wouldn’t be fun if she knew what was going to happen, but still. She wanted to have some leverage over her brother. No biggie, she was going to enjoy this game because her sweet boy spent so much time and effort working on it so it would be enjoyable for everyone. 

“Fine. But, forewarning, Barry, I’m gonna flirt with every single one of your NPC’s.”

“Ew, why are you flirting with his NPC’S?”

“Because it’ll be like flirting with Barry in game.” She added a wink to Barry’s direction which earned her a smirk from him and more gagging noises from Taako.

“Is this really just an excuse to flirt with me? Because you can do that all the time outside of the game, my love.” Barry started to put his screen down but covered all of his papers so no one could see them. She popped another ice cube in her mouth as she nodded and leaned over to him, her head in hands once more. 

“I’ll be honest, yeah, it’s all just to flirt with you. I know I can flirt outside of game, but there’s something about role–”

“You both are terrible and can we please start this game so I don’t have to listen to your fantasies?” 

“Aw such a shame that Kravitz isn’t finished with his character yet, so sad.” Lup fake sympathized as she straightened up in her chair. Her stomach rumbled for something. Huh. What did it want this time? Pistachios and….chili peppers. Perfect. She got up and made her way to the kitchen, patting Taako on the head on her way there. As if on cue, Kravitz looked up at her, his pencil now down. 

“Actually, I’m ready to start playing. My character is all finished and ready to go.” Lup groaned a little bit as she entered the pantry and reached up for the pistachios. Of course he was finished now. Just as she was really having fun with Barry. Rude. She decided to just grab the whole bag and not bother with a bowl. They got the unshelled ones anyway so no one had to worry about that mess. She went to the fridge and began looking for her second want. 

“Taaks, where are the chili peppers?”

“Behind the fake milk. You put it there the other day, don’t you remember?” 

“You know, I can barely remember what I did earlier today so no. I don’t remember me putting the chili peppers behind the fake milk.” She moved aside the fake milk and grabbed the chili peppers. The milk was a way to compromise with Barry over his intolerance since he insisted on having milk in his cereal. He still complained about this milk because it wasn’t as creamy as real milk. Oat milk was an almost hit until they found out that Barry was also sensitive to it as well. It also didn’t treat Lup’s body well, but that was neither here nor there. 

She brought her bag and her jar to the table with her and plopped down back in her chair, opening the jar greedily. She took one nice looking pepper and ate it right up, which got her a look from Taako.

“All right boys, I’m ready when you are. Babejeans, you ready?”

“Aw fuck yeah I am!”

* * *

It was several hours after their first session and Lup and Barry sat in bed cuddled up to one another. Barry had a book propped open in front of them so that they could both read it together. The session had gone well for the most part. All the characters had met one another and were tasked to start their job. As true to her word, Lup had managed to flirt with every single one of Barry’s NPC’s, which divulged into them two just flirting with one another. They would stop when Taako threw a pistachio at the both of them. 

It had been set up in a fun way and everyone was pretty intrigued to finish it. They had done their small job, something Barry told them he just wanted them to get their feet wet first. They fought some baddies this game, but it was just for practice really, and to try to level up their characters as quickly as possible so that they weren’t so squishy. 

The session had ended when everyone kept getting too distracted to carry on anymore. Taako wouldn’t stop throwing pistachios at her, Lup wouldn’t stop trying to dunk cold water on Taako because something his character said made her mad. Kravitz looked like he was about to fall asleep at the table, and Barry just couldn’t keep order around anymore. They agreed to stop right before getting assigned their next job and went their separate ways to bed after a quick clean up.

Now, they were nestled together reading a necromancy book that Barry had snuck away from the scene on an earlier bounty. 

Lup pressed a kiss to his shoulder and laid her head on it, her eyes beginning to droop.

“I just wanted to tell you that I had a lot of fun today.” She told him tiredly. She’s just been so exhausted recently and it sucked because even though she was so tired, she was unable to find a comfortable sleeping position, so even though she was like this, she was pretty sure she was going to be up all night. “I can’t wait until we have time again to play.”

“Yeah, I had a lot of fun today, too. Your characters are all very, very interesting and I can’t wait to see what else I can do, you know? Thank you for letting me do this.” He pressed a kiss to her head, which only caused her to snuggle in closer. 

“Are you kidding? I just wish we did it sooner. It would’ve been a lot of fun.” She yawned heavily, her eyes now fully closing. She could feel Barry’s deep laugh rumble in his chest as he closed the book and put it on his nightstand. He wrapped her up in a tight hug and breathed in deeply. Lup always felt safer when she was in Barry’s arms. There was just something about him that made her feel so at peace with herself. She nestled in closer. 

“Yeah, but I’m glad that we did it when we did.” He began to stroke her hair which only made her more sleepy. She hummed in response, feeling her exhaustion finally take its toll on her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she mumbled. If she had been more awake she would’ve screamed it from the rooftops, and would've poured out exactly why she was in love with him. Why she fell in love with him every day and tell him exactly what he means to her. Gods she loved him like something fierce, and she kept falling in love with him. 

Another kiss to her head, and then she was out. 

* * *

It was early in the morning when she woke up next. So early that the sun wasn’t out yet. She didn’t know what had woke her up at first. She thought that maybe she had just gotten uncomfortable and that was that. She wasn’t curled up in Barry’s arms anymore. Instead she was facing their window on her side with Barry’s arm hanging loosely around her. She blinked a bit, trying to decipher what was going on. She didn’t have to pee which was surprising. She also felt like she was in the most comfortable position she had been in all week. She also wasn’t feeling hungry just yet and she wasn’t craving anything, so what was–

A new sensation made her freeze a little bit. It was like her stomach was rumbling, but at the same time it wasn’t. There was a strange fluttering that only lasted for a moment and then it was gone. Her eyes widened as she moved Barry’s arm from around her and turned on her light, lifting her night shirt up to see if she could catch it. 

She waited for ten minutes, completely focusing on her belly. She didn’t think that this was what she thought it was. Maybe it was just her brain making it seem that it was. Besides, she was supposed to feel little butterflies first, right? That’s what she read in all the books and what everyone in her class told her. She felt a fluttering feeling before, but she had thought it was just gas, also it seemed too early, right? She really didn’t know, she thought she did but she didn’t in the end and that there were only so many books she could read about what to expect.

Then, all of sudden, she saw it. She felt it before seeing it, it was so tiny and so innocuous that she was sure that it was just her stomach moving from weird stomach things. But no, it was different. She saw something and felt something shift and not a few minutes later she saw another part of her belly move. Her eyes widened and she couldn’t help but send her hand flying over to Barry, patting him repeatedly to wake him up. It would take him a bit to wake up since he slept like the dead, also he had to go and do paperwork tomorrow early, and fuck, oh well this was more than worth it.

“Barry! Barry wake up!” She whispered, she was sitting up now, her shirt now covering her belly again. Barry for his part groaned a bit, turning over in his sleep to maybe block her out a little bit. Lup frowned slightly at that. It wasn’t meant in rudeness, Barry was just tired and she got that. She normally was like that if someone was trying to wake her up. She leaned over him and began to kiss his temple, rubbing his arms to try to coax him out of sleep. “Babe, wake up!”

“What is it?” He slurred, still in his asleep state. He was so damn cute that she couldn’t handle it sometimes. She kissed him again, more because she liked to kiss him. 

“I need you to wake up for me,” she kissed him again for good measure which got him turning to face her. He smiled tiredly at her and was slow blinking at her as he tried to fight off the sweet embrace of sleep. 

“Everything all right?”

“Everything’s perfect. Give me your hand!” She grabbed his hand excitedly, and he obeyed, putting his hand on her abdomen. He gave it a gentle squeeze and smiled warmly at her. They waited like that for a bit, Barry just letting her have this as she waited with baited breath. They waited for what felt like forever, but it was probably only ten more minutes until it happened again. The slightest of all movements, just a shift to get more comfortable probably, but it was enough for Barry to gasp at it as the palm of his hand moved. 

“Oh wow,” he marveled, eyes wide as he applied the slightest bit of pressure on her belly. “How long have they been doing this?”

“I really only noticed it tonight. The butterflies that everyone was talking about felt more like gas to me, so it could’ve been them moving, but I just didn’t know. They’re so big now, Bear.” She put her own hand over his, rubbing her thumb across his fingers.

“Yeah, we’ll just blink and then they’ll be here.”

Lup sighed heavily at that as she adjusted herself to be laying down again on the bed, cuddling up next to Barry so that he could still hold onto her belly. She knew that time was now going by quickly and that they really hadn’t done anything to prepare for the arrivals except for buying some little outfits here and there. They still haven’t cleared out the spare room, nor have they even picked out a color palette to go with. A lot of the other people in their class have at least set up some things in their room. They were 14 weeks out until the arrival, and they really didn’t even have a pack of diapers. 

“You’re stressed about the room, aren’t you?”

“We don’t have anything. We can’t even use your old baby bassinet because it’s not big enough for the both of them. I know that we’re room sharing the first year, but I just want things to be ready for when we start transitioning them to their own space.” She buried her head into Barry’s shoulder a bit and tried to relax a bit. There was another little movement, probably one of her kids telling her that she really dropped the ball on that one. “When would you have time to start that?”

Barry tightened his grip on her a little bit, shifting her so that she could be closer. 

“I think I can do it next weekend. Raven Queen wants me to go on paternity leave when you get to 25 weeks, so She’s lessening my workload until then.” She felt him breathe in deeply as they settled back into trying to sleep again. Barry still had his hand on her stomach to try to feel any more movement. She was sure this was going to become their routine when they were getting settled into bed or just waking up in the morning. They would just spend some extra trying to feel for either of them, and honestly that would be a great way to wake up.

“That sounds like a plan there, Bluejeans,” she took his hand again and squeezed it lightly. “I think Taako wants to do something that doesn’t involve baby stuff at some point.”

“Aw yeah, he was telling me he wanted to take you out somewhere. Alas, I can’t remember what it was that he wanted to do.” He was lying between his teeth, Lup knew it, and she knew that he knew that she knew he was lying. She could tell by the sheepish grin she could sort of make out in the dim light. Taako probably made him swear not to tell her where he wanted to take her the bastard. 

She huffed a bit and rolled her eyes as she snuggled even closer into him. She breathed in his scent, savoring how it made her feel so at home with him. She also took notice that when she did breathe him in, her stomach moved once again. There were two others who enjoyed his scent, and she couldn’t blame them one bit, Barry smelled great. She had just gotten comfortable again when her bladder told her it was time to zoom on into the bathroom, to which she just heaved an even heavier sigh.

“Someone knocked your bladder again?”

“You know, I ask for so little. I just want to have a nice sleep. Just one night, you know? No interruptions for the bathroom, no getting uncomfortable because of a sleeping position. I just want to sleep all night long for once. But no. I can’t even make sure I’m fully charged before they get here.” She untangled herself from Barry as she ranted, pulling on her house socks since apparently her feet have been getting colder and colder. It was probably because it was getting colder out and no one has worked the heater yet, or it was because it was just a symptom of the pregnancy. Either way, she’s been using house socks more and more. Sometimes they get so cold that she has to wear them to bed. 

“Hey, Lup?” Barry called out as she made her way to the door, still sort of grumbling over how she had to get up again after getting comfortable. She turned to give him her full attention. “You’re beautiful.”

She scoffed a little at that. Of course she was beautiful, she was Lup for gods sake. Still, as much as she scoffed at the comment, she couldn’t help the bubble of warmth and love that overtook her at his words. It wasn’t that she was feeling ugly over her body changing so much in such a short period of time, she was just sort of taken aback from it. Taken aback from the limitations she now had. It was the same as having to relearn how to use her physical body again after being a lich for so long. It was a difficult process, sure, but she got used to it in the end. Just as she was going to get used to this. Of course when she was just getting used to a certain look, her body will have been changed by then. 

“Gods, you’re such a sap.” She didn’t mean to sound so choked up, she really didn’t. She didn’t even realize she was getting so emotional until she started speaking, and then tears started to drip from her eyes. She rubbed at her eyes a bit as a poor attempt to stop the tears, only for them to fall more. “Come on, Bear, you can’t compliment me like this, I’ll break down in a puddle of tears!”

Barry got up from bed at this time, through the blurry tears and the lowlight, she could make out a small smile on his face as he wrapped her up in a hug. She immediately accepted the hug, putting her head in the crook of his neck and trying to breathe in deeply as more tears fell. He started to rub small circles in her back as he gently rocked her a bit. 

“Hormones fucking blow, babe.” She told him miserably as she rocked with him. “All you have to do is compliment me and I’m like this.”

Barry didn’t respond, which she appreciated. She didn’t know what she would want him to say in this situation, because if he told her that he understood she would kill him. They stood like that for a moment before her bladder threatened her again and she groaned. 

“At this point I’m tempted to get diapers for myself.” She unraveled her arms from around him as he gave a soft chuckle at that, squeezing her hand a little bit as it passed through his.

“Do you want to add that to the shopping list?”

“A little bit, yeah, if it means I can sleep through the night sort of.” She smiled at him with tears still in her eyes. “You just go back to bed though. I’ll be in soon.”

“Okay,” he gave her a kiss on the forehead and one more little squeeze on her upper arm before turning back to the bed and plopping himself there. She smiled at him as she left the room and did what she had to do in order to get 30 minutes of sleep in for herself before the next time she had to get up again. 

As she settled herself back into bed, she nestled right up to Barry and wrapped her arms around him again, giving him a peck on his cheek as she did so. She noticed how his lip quirked to a smile, as he wrapped his own arm around her and held her close to him. 

“You’re pretty beautiful yourself,” she whispered to him as she rested her head on his chest. That earned her more of a squeeze on his hold. Their breathing began to sync up as they were coaxed into their dream worlds.

* * *

“Where is this place that you wanted to show me?” Lup asked for the billionth time. They’ve been walking for what felt like forever, but really was just ten minutes. Taako said they needed the exercise, and all she wanted to do was punch him because her back was now officially killing her and her feet were burning. She also had to pee and if they didn’t get somewhere with a bathroom soon, then she wasn’t above going in a bush at this point.

“As I said two minutes ago, Lulu, we’ll get there when we get there.” Taako looked down at his stone for just a moment before shoving it back in his pocket. She groaned, really feeling the pain in her hips now. Being just about at that 24 week part was really getting to her. She was passed the sickness, thank the gods, but now Lup was really starting to feel just where they were resting in her body. It really fucking sucked, especially when one was being pushed closer into her rib cage.

“Well, if I don’t get into a bathroom now, I’m going to pee myself and then whatever paparazzi is trailing us will really get the news story for this week.” They were really in a precarious spot. They were in a strip of stores that was alarmingly ghost-like since it was mid-day during the week. Apparently this was what Taako was waiting for, with barely anyone on the street, then they wouldn’t be stopped as much for autographs. Also, with a little illusion magic to hide the growing evidence of new family members, there will be no articles out about that!

“Can you hold it for like 30 more seconds? We’re almost there.”

“I don’t know, maybe we’ll get lucky and neither one of them will decide to move and kick me right in the bladder.” She was a bit cranky due to not getting a lot of sleep last night, but it seemed like that’s been every night for so long at this point, that she didn’t even know what feeling fully rested felt like. Maybe she could finally convince Barry to do something to help her sleep. He’s been reluctant since he didn’t want to do anything that could potentially hurt her or the kids, but right now, she was so desperate for sleep that maybe they could look into something. 

Taako stopped for a second and looked back at her, holding out his hand for her to grab onto. She gladly took it, feeling him squeeze her hand just a little bit. 

“You doing okay?”

It was a loaded question. On one hand, she was tempted to say that yeah, she was okay. She’s been wanting this for so long. Been wanting to be a mother and to create this life with Barry. Lup grew sick over wanting this, and it almost destroyed her. Now, she got what she’s been wanting, but she couldn’t help but feel miserable. She was excited for the new lives coming into the world, beyond excited, with each new movement that they did, she just felt this bubble of joy in her chest just explode. Lup couldn’t help but smile anytime she saw their sonogram on their fridge. Couldn’t help resting her hand on her stomach at any chance she got for the opportunity to feel them kick under her hands. She loved the little moments so much, but she’d be lying if it was all fine. Pregnancy had been hard for her so far. She was nauseous for much longer than she expected to be, her hips were in so much pain every day, and she couldn’t really lay on her side very well because of the pain she was in. Her boobs were constantly sore, and she’s been breaking out like crazy. Also her hair had been falling out more than usual. Her center of gravity had changed so much that she felt like she was constantly adjusting herself each day to them.

It all sounded vain, she knew that, but just about a month ago she had found out she was pregnant, and now her body had changed so much in such a short time, that she barely recognized it. It was like she was back to getting used to her body from being a lich for so long, but instead, she had to get used to the two people who were currently occupying her body. She was too ashamed to admit this to Barry, but it sometimes felt like she didn’t recognize her own body some days she looked in the mirror. It felt like she was suddenly back to how she was pre-transition when she was younger, this time having intense body dysmorphia over how quickly her body changed. After spending 100 or so years with her body being inherently the same, to suddenly have her body this different….she wasn’t really doing too well. 

However, it sounded so selfish to say out loud. She knew it wasn’t really, these changes affect a lot of other people as well, and she knew if she brought it up to Ash, then they would tell her that it was completely normal to feel this way about her body. They would tell her that it was okay to feel this way and to still feel excited for the impending arrival. It was also okay to feel unwell during this time as well. It’s not like she expected pregnancy to be sunshine and rainbows, where she’d be at her prime and just basking in the glory of growing lives. Lup wasn’t naive to how pregnancy was, she had looked into everything a long time ago when she and Barry were first talking about having kids on the Starblaster. It was a lot different actually experiencing it than reading it.

She took a deep breath and bit her lip a little bit. She didn’t know how to approach this subject with Taako. Not that she didn’t trust him, she trusted him with everything. He was her twin brother, after all. She shared most things with him. Lup wouldn’t feel necessarily bad if she told him these things and opened up about it. She just didn’t know how to phrase it without sounding ungrateful. Still, she couldn’t just keep it in and let it eat her up like this. She had to tell someone, and she didn’t really hold much back from Taako, or she was trying not to. 

“I just….I don’t know. I don’t….I don’t feel like myself if that makes sense?” It sounded weird coming out of her mouth, almost like she was making it more of a question than a statement. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful about what happened, don’t get me wrong, I’m over the moon. I just….it’s just so different from what I’m used to and I’m not used to, well any of this. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I didn’t expect it to be this difficult.” She confessed, feeling both guilty and a little lighter since she got it out there. She felt her hand be given another firm squeeze as she realized that there were some tears streaming down her face that she didn’t realize before. She swore under her breath as she tried to stop them by wiping them away with her free hand.

“Fucking hormones. See this is what I’m talking about!” They had stopped fully at this point and Taako turned her so she was facing him. He was rubbing circles in her hand, trying everything he could to comfort her. Lup was sure that this was mostly hormones causing the tears, but it could also be everything else that was happening. There was always a constant stress in the back of her mind about something going wrong at any stage of the pregnancy, even the birth. If something went wrong at all and something were to happen to them, she would never forgive herself. She couldn’t help it, but just close the distance between her and Taako and throw her arms around him as she cried. She felt his arms close around her and hug her tightly, rubbing circles into her back as her body wracked with sobs. “I just don’t know what’s wrong with me anymore. This is what I’ve been wanting for so long and now that it’s here, I just feel so ungrateful!”

Taako made shushing noises into her ear, holding her close and slowly started to rock her back and forth. He cradled her head with one hand, massaging her scalp gently as she just let it all out. She felt him press a kiss to her temple as he continued to gently massage her back and rock her as if she was the baby.

“I don’t think you sound ungrateful, Lu. It’s just, this isn’t easy. I know you and Barry were planning on this for so long, but I’m sure you know there’s a difference between planning on something, and then actually experiencing it. Your body is going through a lot of changes, right now, that I’m sure it’s normal to feel this way.” He squeezed her a little bit before pulling apart and looking her in the eyes, wiping her tears away with his thumb. “I doubt that this is just about hormones, anyway. You know that it’s okay to talk about these things, right? I highly doubt people will think that you’re taking it for granted, especially if they knew how much you tried for this.”

“But most people  _ don’t _ know how much Barry and I tried for this!”

“And fuck those people if they try to paint your experience in a negative light. They don’t matter. I’m sure if you talk to anyone in our family, then they wouldn’t think any less of you. Barry is fucking crazy for you. He’d just want to make sure you were as comfortable as possible.”

“Yeah, but then he’d feel guilty because I’m going through this! Taako, I can’t see him like that. Feeling so liable that I’m like this!”

Taako just shook his head and rubbed his hands down her arms before going to her forehead and gently flicking her. She sniffed sharply, ready to yell at him before seeing the look on his face. His lips were in a tight line as his eyes were soft on her. She knew it was hard for him to see her like this, she’d be acting the same if the roles were reversed. Lup would match the look he was giving her now, with the same fold in his forehead from furrowing his eyebrows.

“Lup, ya dingus, he is sort of liable for putting those two in there.” His words might’ve sounded harsh to an outsider, someone who didn’t know his voice as well, and just his TV persona. To her though, his words were meant to be caring, his voice was lowered so no one could pick up on what he was saying to her, and filled with so much care and gentleness that she wanted to break down again. “You two are a partnership, you should be able to talk to him about these things, and you know that when he starts lookin like that, then he just wants some way to fix it. He just wants you to be happy, and I’m sure he’d really appreciate it if you told him how you were feeling.”

Lup nodded, feeling snot go down to her lip crudely. Fucking gross. She sniffed loudly as she shifted to go into her bag and take out a tissue, she was glad that she was now starting to do the mom thing of packing basically everything. 

“I’m not telling you what to do, but I’m just suggesting that it might be a good idea to ask Ash if they know anyone who specializes in this stuff. I really don’t want to see my better half just crumple, you know?” He was trying to play it up as a joke, but she knew that he was worried for her. Especially since she was having this break down in a deserted shopping strip in the middle of the day. Gods, this was embarrassing. But, she nodded. The mind was fragile after all, and not one person can help remedy it. It’s why she and Barry had a separate marriage counselor from Ash. There was only so much one person could do.

“I think that’s for the best. Yeah. It’s nice talking to the other people in the birthing class, but they tend to not talk about what’s troubling them for whatever reason.” Or if they did, it was in a strange code that had them winking after every time they talked about severe back pain. Or how their husband obviously has it harder because he has to deal with their mood swings and cravings. She knew that it sort of confused Barry when he overheard some of the conversations from where he was with the other dads-to-be. He’d give her a look and raise an eyebrow like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“In the meantime, know that you can talk to Barold about this. I’m sure he’d really appreciate it. He’s been worried about you.” 

“So am I right to assume that you and my sweet boy talked about this?” She blew her nose a little bit, catching how Taako wrinkled his nose in disgust over the sound. Lup took a deep breath and put the tissue in her front bag pocket, trying to make a note that she put it in there and to remember to take it out when she found a garbage can. 

“What happens between brothers stay between brothers, even if one of the brothers is a serious nerd who is head over heels in love with his wife.” Taako wrapped Lup up in a side hug, throwing his arm around her shoulder. She smiled at him, mimicking him a bit. 

“I see. Well, best take me to wherever this place is, because I’m pretty sure I peed myself a little bit.”

* * *

Taako ended up taking her to a pottery place where they just spent the afternoon painting. She appreciated it. She really did. Lup barely got to spend one on one time with each other, especially since she got pregnant. Most of the time they did have was about the pregnancy, and she knew that he didn’t mind her talking about it, it was something she was going through after all. However, she really did just miss where she was just goofing off with her brother without talking about baby stuff. 

Taako was currently painting a bird like figurine with some navy blue paint. He said he was adding sparkles to it later and it was going to be an anniversary gift to Kravitz. At least, his joke anniversary gift. 

“How is Krav? I feel like he’s never around anymore.” She was painting a bowl, she didn’t know what she would use it for, but she just liked the shape when she saw it. It was a pretty deep bowl. Might be nice for their front door to just put their keys at. Huh, who knows. It wasn’t very creative with how she was painting it, she sort of just went for it when they got the paints, painting the entirety of it white and then diving in and mixing white and yellow to add some flowers. She was missing something, so she added some mint green flowers as well, and now, she sort of had a disaster of yellow and green flowers and Taako had made fun of her more than once about it. 

“Oh you know, worked to the bone.” He gave her a shit-eating grin at the terrible joke. She simply smirked at him as she rolled her eyes, bumping his elbow just a bit. Taako shrieked at her as he had to redirect where his brush was going last minute so he wouldn’t ruin the bird. “This is a fucking masterpiece, Lup-da-Lup, be fucking careful!”

Lup rolled her eyes again as she went back to work, looking at her creation again. Gods….there was just something there that wasn’t sitting right with her. She didn’t know what it was missing, but it was certainly something. 

“In all seriousness, it’s been kind of sucking without him being around that much. The newbies are draining him to no end, by the way. Apparently they’re still confused on how to do most things, and he told me that you and Barry were dreams compared to these schmucks. I don’t know how RQ got bottom of the barrel material for reapers, Lups, it’s beyond me.” He explained, carefully looking over his bird for any places he missed and quickly covering in the paint. 

That made Lup think for a bit. Her and Barry as newly appointed Reapers weren’t exactly model students. Hell, she still hadn’t read her employee manual all the way through yet. She’s tried to, but then she always manages to fall asleep somehow. Maybe it’s because how they explain everything was so….dry. Someone definitely left it in the oven for too long to the point of no salvation. Lup remembered on more than one occasion Kravitz running after them like they were children because they figured something out that they weren’t supposed to yet. They weren’t model students, but they sure as hell were fast learners. She had seen Kravitz on more than one occasion pinch the bridge of his nose any time they were being irresponsible with their Reaper gifts. Like, requesting an arm wrestle from Magnus to really test her new strength. That ended up in a broken table.

“Is RQ at least giving Krav your anniversary off?” She hadn’t really been in the work loop all that much. She sometimes got files that she needed to organize to keep her mind busy, but really, since she hasn’t been able to go to the office, she’s been out of the circle for workplace drama. Which, for a job full of undead people, there was a significant amount. Something about something RQ casting favorites, and the favorites were definitely Kravitz, her, and Barry. Which, yeah, those were solid choices to cast favoritism to, if she were RQ, she would do the same. Also, out of all the teams, they were the most consistent in their bounties. Sure, Barry may sneak a necromancy book, and yeah, she might’ve caused a distraction so Kravitz didn’t know right away, but that was just semantics.

“From what I know? Yeah. And if I hear she scheduled him, I’m going down there myself and telling Her what’s up. My boy needs a break too, ya know!”

“Right! Who’s watching over the school while you’re gone? You’re like leaving for a week long thing, right? A week before baby evacuation?” Gods, what was this bowl missing?

“Yup! Gonna be quite the time! You and Barold can have some alone time, Krav and I will have alone time, it’ll be great!” He answered, smirking a bit to himself. “Also, we won’t have to deal with the fucking cold, babey!”

Lup laughed to herself as she looked at the bowl again, something nagging that something was missing. She frowned just a bit as she looked at it. 

“What’s missing?” She asked, scrutinizing her work. Taako hummed and looked over it. 

“Is it a nursery piece? Maybe their names or something.”

Lup groaned at that. Another thing that she and Barry had been neglecting to do when it came to their kids. It wasn’t like they were avoiding it, it was just hard to come up with names. It was bad enough naming one baby, but two? They agreed that it wouldn’t be fair to name one twin a family name, while the other got a completely different name. But, that landed them back at square one, and not one name seemed to fit. They tried to hit with one and go with gender neutral names, but that fell through because each name they tried on them just felt wrong. They would play test for three days, and each time the names just didn’t land. 

“That hard huh?” Taako went back to his work, sighing a little bit. “My poor nephews or nieces, nameless and being difficult about it. Tsk, tsk, what are we going to do about that?”

“Be nameless a week after their birth, that’s what’s going to happen.” She looked it over again. “I’m going to say that I’m done, and maybe later I’ll add in their names if we ever get there. Barry is getting another name book at some point.”

She felt Taako rub her shoulder for a quick second. She turned to face him, and was greeted by his face looking all serious.

“What’s up?” 

He seemed to hesitate for a quick moment before recollecting his thoughts. He looked right at her, a warm smile present on his face. 

“I’m just really glad we were able to do this today. I’ve missed just spending time with you without the other two, you know? I love them, don’t tell Barold I said that, but I’m just glad I got to share today with you.” He was so genuine and his face was so full of that rare emotion that he barely let out to anyone. She couldn’t help but feel a little choked up over it. 

“Ko….gods, I love you so much.” She got up from her chair and gave him a big hug, kissing him on his head, feeling the tears start coming down her face again. Gods damned hormones. “I’m glad we could spend today together, too. Thank you, really Taako, thank you.” 

And for whatever reason, that got Taako. One moment he was totally fine, and the next he was hugging her back, crying with her. She’s missed this. Just being with her brother, she really missed this so much. 

“Lup, what the fuck, I really had to steel myself to not cry!” He sobbed in her shirt a little bit, holding onto her tight. It had been way too long since it was just the two of them, she knew that he had been feeling it, she had been feeling it, and she couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty. Her whole life right now centered around two people growing inside of her. However, this moment right here was all for Taako. The rock who held her through during her most difficult times, the person she could fully rely on no matter what. He might’ve called her the better twin earlier, but he was clearly the better one with all the things he had to go through with her. 

This moment was just for Taako, and gods had she just missed everything about these moments. She gave him another kiss on his head before separating from him and holding his face in her hands. 

“Whenever you want. Name a time and place and we can hang out more, just the two of us, kay?” She promised. Taako nodded a watery smile on his face. 

“Okay, but you’re choosing the location next time. Do you know how hard it is finding activities for pregnant people to do? Way too fucking hard, my dude.” They both laughed together. She didn’t even care if the other people around heard them anymore, she could feel her soul swell with so much love and care for her brother, that if the others were annoyed by this, then they could go fuck themselves. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just finished this.....two minutes ago.....im gonna go sleep now.
> 
> Thank you to those who have commented and kudos this! It really means a lot to me!!!
> 
> I've really just been excited to write this because we're getting closer to Them.....
> 
> If u want to hear me scream into the void you can follow me @moonsympathizer on Tumblr!


	5. Chapter 5

Lup was sitting in her chair, trying to focus on doing some sort of work, but failing due to the over activity she was currently feeling in her abdomen. Apparently two people had gotten better sleep than she did the previous night and were now playing the oh so fun game of  _ “who can kick Mom the hardest?” _ It must be their favorite pastime, since they’ve been doing it nearly every day since she’s been able to feel the move. 

There was starting to be less and less room recently, and she guessed that made sense. She was 31 weeks now, and in just 5 more weeks they would be making their entrance unto the world. Gods, she hoped the world was ready for them, but chances were that it wasn’t. 

She tapped her pen on the paper she was working on, trying to concentrate on what she was looking at. It was a report on some sort of cult Barry and Kravitz did. Right. Okay, and all she had to do was document what they were after and how many there were and, and….

A kick right in her ribcage had her gasping for breath all of a sudden. She dropped her pen and clutched her stomach for a moment as she struggled to catch her breath. Sadly, that was also when Barry decided to come into their room with lunch balanced in one hand, and then her bottle of water in the other. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him to see her like this, she really didn’t know why. Maybe because she just didn’t want him to get worried over her, even though that’s exactly what the other people in her birthing class wanted their own partners to do. It also wasn’t like she wasn’t used to Barry worrying over her. She was more than used to that since he did it so frequently during the StarBlaster days, and he was used to her worrying over him. Lup really didn’t know why to explain it. 

Almost immediately he was by her side, setting down the food and water on the desk as he came over to her as she tried to take a deep breath in. He rubbed her arms as he stared at her, face filled with a troubled look. 

Lup finally got her breath under control as he rubbed her arms. He didn’t have to ask for her to know what he was thinking.

“Everything’s fine. I just got kicked in the rib.” She told him, now resting one hand on his shoulder and the other one on her belly. “Don’t worry, they’re not trying to come out yet, babe. I know you’ve been hearing horror stories from the others and working yourself up about it.”

Barry bowed his head sheepishly at that, she knew she clocked him right there. She was barely sleeping after all, she noticed when he snuck off in the middle of the night to go to the living room to read another book. Lup understood why he did that, he just wanted to be in the know of things, but she also knew that he worried himself to the point where he was fretting over her all day long. She loved him more than anything, but she wanted him to not worry himself to his next death. Lup didn’t know what would happen at that point, and nor did she really want to know.

“Sorry about that.” Lup booped him softly on the nose with that and shook her head at him. 

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about, Bear.” She pecks him on the forehead. “You just like being prepared for things, even though it keeps you awake at night.” 

He rolled his eyes playfully at her as he stood up, groaning a little bit and complaining about his knees as he did so. She laughs at him softly as she glances over to see what he had brought up to her. An avocado sandwich from the looks of it with some ham and lettuce and tomato. It was all on wheat bread, so Barry was really trying to make sure she ate all the proper foods, while still keeping her more constant cravings in mind. Bless him. 

“Gods, how am I going to chase after two hyperactive kids with these knees?” Barry moved over to where he put the plate and bottle, handing it over to her with a soft smile. 

“Who’s to say that they’re going to be hyperactive?” She took the plate and bottle gratefully and putting it on her papers, it’ll be fine. She’ll just have to be careful. Also, she could give her eyes a break from having to see all of that. She popped open the bottle and took a long drink from it, hoping that it may calm them down just a little bit. Maybe they were just telling her that they were hungry and that’s why they decided to kick her. “Did you already eat?”

Barry shook his head a little bit as he got himself situated on his chair in the room. With an overdramatic groan, he lowered himself down which got her rolling her eyes playfully at him. He’s been doing that more often than not, probably as a way to tell her how old he was. 

“Have you met our family? Also, who they share genetic coding with?”

Lup let out a joke offended laugh and put her hand over her heart to show her astonishment of being clocked by her own husband in this manner.

“Barry J. Bluejeans, I take immediate offense to that.  _ I _ am the pinnacle of calmness and serenity. I would never bound all over the place and then kick someone in the ribs. I have self awareness.” She defended, slouching back in her chair as she balanced her bottle on her stomach. It had really gotten super big during the past few weeks, to the point where people were saying that she  _ finally _ looked like she was carrying twins. She tried not to get too uncomfortable with that comment, and she was sure that Barry had seen her try to just nod and smile about it. In return, he had taken hold of her hand, and they had a long talk that night about what was bothering her and how uncomfortable she had been getting with her body. Barry listened to her all the way through, rubbing her back as she broke down about what had been bothering her. Ever since then, he had quickly changed the topics whenever people tried to get a word in how big she was getting, and how she looked ready to pop. She was very thankful for his interference to an extreme level. 

“Of course you are, Lup, why would you think I was talking about you in that scenario, hmm?” There was a mischievous glint in his eyes as he smirked at her, leaning some in his seat so he could get comfortable. 

“Oh, you’re skutchen, babe. Absolutely skutchen.” She rolled her eyes again at him as she swiveled just a bit to trade her bottle for her lunch plate. Gods she could really go for a bag of salt and vinegar chips at right about now. How she would absolutely kill for some. Gods fuck. 

“You know, you and Taako never actually explained what that meant.” He commented, resting his hands on his stomach as he watched her stuff her face with the sandwich he so lovingly made for her. It was a good sandwich, nicely balanced with the flavors. She knew that Taako always complained about how no one but he and Lup could cook in this house, but, Barry did have something up on Taako and her, and it was his ability to make a damn good sandwich. 

Of course Barry would say that it wasn’t a talent at all and to not give him credit for it. He was much too humble about his sandwich making skills.

“I’ll let you in on a little family secret,” she told him with her mouth full of sandwich. He leaned in closer to her as she swallowed, giving her his full attention. She cleared her throat a little bit and took a sip of water before continuing. “Our Auntie never really told us what it meant either. She just called us skutches if we were acting up and we took that and ran with it.”

“I see,” Barry nodded sagely at that, leaning back in his chair. They smiled at each other as Lup ate her lunch in comfortable silence. She was glad for the reprieve from work. She knew the Raven Queen told her to take it easy, and that she could take her time with the reports. It wasn’t a big necessity for them to be written right away after all. Also, Kravitz probably already had a fully detailed report ready to go. This was just for Lup to not feel cooped up in their home and for her to do something while on leave and waiting for these two to arrive. “Oh, Creesh is coming over today to take you out. Taako said he wants you gone.”

“Well, that’s a nice warning on his part. Does he even know how long it takes me to put on a pair of jeans? Way too long. Here I am lounging about in comfy clothes and he wants me to go out today? Who does he think he is?” She ranted, putting down her plate as she mentally prepared herself to get up from her chair. It was probably better that she did get up now anyway. She was probably throwing this out of proportion, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but hormones didn’t really make any sense anyway.

“You don’t have to get ready now. I think she’s not coming until she’s done with some work? Also, I think he wants us to stay up on the moon? I don’t know, it was really weird.” Barry shrugged his shoulders. 

“Wait, the both of us are spending the day with Creesh and staying up there tonight? Yeah, that’s not going to work since I can’t even get up there right now.” She felt an oncoming headache coming on as she thought about how in all the hells did her brother think that she would be able to get up there right now? RQ wasn’t even letting her use portals due to them being overly cautious. The only way up was a ball, and she was sure that her doctor wouldn’t approve of that mode of transportation. 

“All I know is that he’s banning us from the house. Also, I think that you’re the only one spending time with Creesha. I don’t know. I just know that I have some work to get done and I just wanted to give you a heads up before Taaks comes running in here in a tizzy hustling you out.” He explained, getting up from his chair now and holding out his hand as he realized that she was getting up now. She’s been needing more help with getting up from her sitting position, which she wasn’t really used to. Lup had always prided herself in her younger years of how independent she was. She was sure that if she had seen her now, she would not believe what she was seeing. 

Lup gladly took his hand, trying to gage how to haul herself up without toppling over. She braced her hand on the arm of her chair and gingerly got up to the best of her ability, really using Barry a lot to get up.

“I just think it’s really rude of him to think that it was okay to spring this on me. We’re supposed to be clearing out that room. Fuck, Bear, we really gotta finish that. Their cribs aren’t even set up in there, which I think is bare minimum.” She knew she was over-fixating on the room. They aren’t even going to sleep there until they are at least a year old. She and Barry had already talked about it, and they both agreed that they wanted to co-share their room with them so it’d be easier for her to nurse when they needed to feed.

“I think you can take a break from thinking about that, Lup, it’s just going to stress you out more.” He kissed her on her forehead and rubbed her back a little bit. She felt her shoulders relax just a bit from the tension she was holding in there. Her whole body just felt heavy, and all that she really wanted to do was to lay down and take a nap. She really hoped that Lucretia didn’t have anything majorly physical planned, she really didn’t think that she would be able to do anything really that exercise. Her pelvis was really hurting nowadays, to where she couldn’t walk for long periods of time. Even sitting got to her. Really, she was just at the stage of pregnancy where every position she tried was just uncomfortable. 

Instead of going over to her dresser, she just closed the remaining distance between her and Barry and rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her. He massaged her back a little bit, having her groan in relief as he got the most problematic knots. 

“They still don’t have names, Barry. I think we can get a little stressed over that.” She had her arms wrapped around him, trying to get as close to him as her belly would allow. Gods, that was still so weird to her. To not be able to get as close as she wanted to him fucking sucked. 

“I know, babe, I know. But, I think we just need to tick off things one at a time instead of plowing through them. Things will get done, okay?” He soothed, his fingers working on a really tight knot in her back. She breathed in sharply as he rubbed it, causing him to stop. “You okay?”

“Yeah, you just got a really good knot,” she nestled back into his shoulder and breathed in deeply. “I understand we just need to take things one at a time, but it just feels real late in the game to get names sorted out.” 

“Hey,” Barry unraveled his arms from her and pulled away to look at her in the eyes. His face was kind and reassuring, and just everything she loved about him. His glasses were sliding down his nose just a little bit as he looked at her, removing the glare from his glasses that she normally got when looking into his eyes. “It’ll all work out, okay? And I know that sounds rich coming from the epitome of freaking out until things get done.”

Lup let out a laugh at that, which earned her Barry smiling at her, eyes crinkling just from hearing her laugh. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s Krav, babe.” They both let out a chuckle at that which led into a strange laughter of sleep deprivation. Lup couldn’t remember the last time she laughed that hard, and honestly, she’d worry about the consequences later. She was changing her pants anyway. She laughed until a sharp pain silenced her, replacing her laughter with a sharp hiss. Lup’s hand went to her belly as she slowly lowered herself back down in her chair. Barry was very quickly lowered next to her, trying his best to assess the situation. 

“Are you-?”

“Nope, it’s fine. Just false contractions. It’s way too early for them anyway.”

“I don’t think babies normally follow a timeline of when it’s too early or not. They just come.” He rubbed her arm a little bit as Lup poked her stomach, trying to get the two of them to be nice to her. She was rewarded with a swift kick and what felt like a butt. “Should you be going out today?”

“They seem fine, Bear, really. It’s just false contractions. I’ve been having them for a few days now. However, if it really makes you feel better, you can tag along.” She took hold of his hand and gave it a light squeeze before taking it and pressing a kiss to it, rubbing his knuckles a little bit. 

Barry looked conflicted for a moment, looking between her and the door before shaking his head at her and giving her a thin smile.

“Taako would kill me if I ditched him. We have plans after you leave with Creesha.”

“Ohoho, secret plans with my brother, Bluejeans? Is it our anniversary coming up?”

“I don’t know, do you want it to be our anniversary?” She let out a chuckle as she pressed another kiss to his knuckles before giving him his hand back and attempting to get up again. This time, she would be getting dressed and ready to do whatever Lucretia had planned. 

“Maybe not until after these two are born. It can be a fun family outing where I can eat sushi again.” She took a deep breath as she braced herself, using the arm of the chair to her advantage again. When she successfully got up, she had to stop herself from celebrating too much just in case she would fuck up her center of balance. 

“Aw yeah, that’ll be fun! There’s that new sushi place Taako’s been telling us to try.” Barry was up in an instant with her, cursing softly at his knees. They were all feeling it lately. 

“Yeah, all the sushi restaurants just decided to open up as soon as I got pregnant.” She walked out of the office and over to their room, holding her hip a little bit and massaging it. Barry was right behind her as she made her trip over to their room, Barry was on her heels, his arm hovering over her just in case she fell. Lup didn’t really feel like going out all that much, nor did she really want to change her clothes all that much right now, except for her pants. She really was going to trade in her pajamas pants with leggings. Her pajama shirt she’ll miss, it really was the comfiest one that she had at the moment. Really, it was one of Barry’s night shirts, but it was the only thing that fit her at the moment. “You think anyone will notice that this isn’t my shirt?”

“I don’t know, are you going to hide your belly again?” She sure was still hiding her belly. Lup really liked the privacy that she got from masking it. Sure, if someone were to take a picture, it’d be out there for everyone, but since she wasn’t really doing anything that would make anyone take a picture of her, then she was fine. They had been after her for years to get pregnant due to everyone just wanting more of their family. It wasn’t like Barry and Lup had been doing anything suspicious. Definitely haven’t been going to any birthing classes and been shopping more in the baby section of the department stores. Not her fault that they weren’t that observant. 

“Probably. It’s been nice having some semblance of privacy.” She entered their room and made a beeline to the dresser. She pulled open her bottom drawer and started to sift through it. Most of her maternity clothes were on the top of the clothes pile now, and honestly it still gave her whiplash sometimes. She really was expecting to see her pencil skirts on top for whatever reason, even though they’ve been in the bottom of her drawer for a few months now. She had a wide selection of leggings in her arsenal now though, which she appreciated. Especially since Taako couldn’t take them as easily anymore. “What do you think, Baby Blue, is it a black leggings day or black leggings day?” 

Barry was in the doorway, giving her some space from the constant hovering. He hummed a little bit as if she gave him an actual choice of what she was going to wear today. She really did appreciate him going along with all of her shenanigans no matter how stupid they were. 

“Huh, I think black leggings sound really good today.” He let out a little laugh as he was telling her, which in return made her laugh a little bit. It was stupid. The joke wasn’t even that funny, but being with him and just laughing with him just made her feel so warm inside. She was so in love with him that it hurt sometimes, but it was all worth it. 

A small kick stopped her from laughing, followed by another kick. Ah, yes, their children wanted to get in on the action. 

“We have attention needing kids, Bear.” She announced to him, pulling out the pair of leggings that were the most comfortable for her. Maybe she’ll get a loose sweater. It was getting cold out and she was feeling it. Barry walked over to her and gestured an ask of touching her belly. She nodded and presented them to him, to which he put his hand on her belly, marveling at them. 

“They’ll join in soon enough. Five more weeks!” One of them kicked against Barry’s hand a little bit, either wanting him to get off of them or because they were just excited to be able to join in with them. Lup liked to think it was the latter, it at least made her feel better.

“Five more weeks until Mama’s cut open! That’s going to be fun!” She was saying it to calm herself down a little bit. It was something that kept her up at night sometimes, and normally it was the worst case scenario. Lup had died plenty of times, in plenty of terrifying experiences. By the Raven Queen, she willingly extracted her soul from her body and became a lich. For whatever reason, though, this was the most terrifying for her. She had stitches before, she had her bones set, but the thought of someone going into her body and extracting two small people from her womb? Disgustingly terrifying!

Barry’s hand left her belly and took hold of her hand. There was another kick from one of them, probably disappointed that his hand was now gone. He squeezed her hand and kissed her forehead. He knew that she was scared about it, he was scared about it. They had talked about it, especially since the time was coming closer and closer, and her doctors appointments recently felt like revolved around. She was excited to get to know the two strangers who have been growing in her the past year, but she was terrified of the process to get them here. Barry didn’t really have anything to say, what could he say? He knew that nothing he told her right now will make her feel better or less anxious. Instead, he just wrapped his arms around her again and held her.

Lup really just needed this though. She knew that he was stressed about the surgery, too. He’s expressed that much since he won’t be able to do anything to help her. He was anxious about her going into labor the most because he would be seeing her go through all that pain and not being able to do anything about it. Barry would just want to take the pain away from her, and he knows that he can’t. It was a talk they had when neither of them could sleep from when he thought she had gone into labor due to waking up with terrible false labor pains. 

She sighed against him, very content to just be close to him, letting her hands go straight to his hair and playing with it. He hummed a little bit, pressing a kiss to her temple as she twirled his hair with her index finger. 

“I love you,” he murmured.

“I love you, too,” she couldn’t help but smile a little bit at that, trying to get as close to him as her belly would allow. 

There was an impatient knock at her door, and without separating from him, she looked up at the doorway and saw her brother. He had his arms crossed with an eyebrow arched as he looked at them.

“You’re not even dressed? Lucretia’s going to be here soon.”

“Sorry, everything’s on slow mode with me, especially getting dressed, Tikkity.” She scratched Barry’s back a bit before separating from him again and getting her abandoned leggings again. “What are you up to that has me leaving the house, anyway?”

Taako let out a huff and shook his head as he sauntered into their room and perched himself on their bed. 

“No can do, Luppity. That’s a secret between me and Istus.” He laid on their bed as if he owned it, which didn’t annoy her, but she did make a note to clean her sheets soon. “I just know that you need to get dressed.”

“Well, I can’t get dressed when you’re in here, Taaks.” She was now sifting through her drawer again and looking for a suitable bra that could support her now. That was another change, her boobs were getting huge, which she might’ve appreciated when she was younger, but now they just hurt and so did her back. Sometimes they leaked through her shirt, so now she couldn’t wear anything that would potentially show it, or just use a thicker bra. 

“Yeah, fine, I’ll leave. I need your boy though.”

“Oh? Okay. Also, do I need an overnight bag or something? Barry was talking about sleeping on the moon tonight, but I can’t get up there right now.”

“Yes to the overnight bag. Will talk to Lucretia about the other logistics. Barold, let’s go.” They left right after that, but not before Barry gave her a quick peck on the lips before leaving. Gods she was so in love with him. 

Another kick followed by another kick happened, and all she could do was put her hand on her belly and rub it a little.

“Yeah, I miss him already, too.” She rolled her eyes a little bit at herself. It really does feel like that sometimes when it comes to her emotions now. She just wanted to be around him all the time, and she didn’t know if it was just her or her current situation. Lup just really liked it when Barry was around, it made her feel nice and warm. By the Raven Queen when did she become such a sap?

There was some more movement from her kids, them telling her that she had always been such a sap and maybe she should stop saying that she isn’t. 

“You know, maybe you’re right, but be nice!”

* * *

Of all the things that she thought that Lucretia would take her to, this probably hadn’t crossed her mind once. Lup had thought that they were going to go to a painting class, or maybe even just a shopping trip. A day to the spa was something below on her list. It wasn’t that she and Creesha had never had a day at the spa before, it was just sometimes it felt like she was the one dragging her to get pampered with some time away from the boys. It had always seemed like Creesha had been going along with her since she wanted to do it, and never because she genuinely enjoyed doing it. So, of course she was shocked when Lucretia brought her here. 

“Huh, I’ll be completely honest with you, Cree, I didn’t expect this.” Lup admitted, rubbing her hip a little bit. One of them was really getting to know her pelvis more and the pressure from that was not the best.

“I’ll be honest, Merle has really made me appreciate spa days more. Really helps out my back, so I thought it might help out yours.” Lucretia looked over her with a sheepish smile on her face and tentatively held out her hand for her. Lup smiled brightly over to her, knowing that she was trying. As long as it took to get her and Barry back on track, she also knew that it took Lucretia a long time to get there too. It had taken her a long time to even look Lup directly in the eye, much less initiating physical content with her. Lup gladly took her hand and squeezed it. It’ll never be like old times, but there came a certain point in life where reminiscing about the past halted any further growth in the relationship for the future. Nothing will ever be exactly like old times, they had all been through too much for her to think it would be healthy for any of them to revert back to how they were before. As it was, Taako still had a hard time with Lucretia and it was something they were both working on. They took it one day at a time, and they made progress every day. They could now be in the same room as each other and Taako spoke to her while looking her in the eye. That was progress. 

“Well, I love the thought. I'm a little sore that it took Merle of all people to turn you on to spa days. To think that the old man would be the one to convince you. Tsk, tsk.” she joked, squeezing her hand again to let her know that she was 100% goofin. Lucretia let out a laugh, her head dipping back a little bit as she closed the distance between them and now they were walking shoulder to shoulder. Lup pressed a quick kiss to her cheek which only had Lucretia laughing a bit more. 

“I must say it surprised me, too.” Lucretia rested her head on Lup’s shoulder for a second before lifting it backup and wincing just slightly. “Will say it made me miss when we used to go.” 

“I’ve missed you! Pray tell me, Madam, what have you been up to? I feel like I never get to see your pretty face.” They walked up to the entrance of the spa, hand in hand like they would’ve done years ago. Maybe someone from the press would see this display of affection and announce to the world that she was getting a divorce from Barry and is now in a relationship with Lucretia. Huh. As much as she loved Creesha, she couldn’t see anything beyond a sister relationship with her, so that would be….hella weird to see.

“Oh, you know, same old same old. Trying to get funding to continue our work, and over-entitled lords being fuckbags when it comes to helping their people. I must thank you for your generous donation, by the way. Taako too, it was way too much.” Lucretia squeezed her hand a little bit before letting go to open the door for her. Lup bowed her head as dramatically as she could to not knock off her center of balance and laughed as she walked in by the drama of it all. Lucretia let out a snort and followed her in.

“Hi, how can I help you two today?” The receptionist asked, looking up from what she was doing as they walked in. There was a cheery smile on her face and it took her awhile before recognition dawned on her face as to who they were. “Oh! Right! Uh, right this way, we’ll put you in a private room!”

Lup raised an eyebrow towards Lucretia, who just smirked at her. Her shoulders were drawn back and her head raised high. The perfect picture of self-assured confidence, and it looked good on her. Lup couldn’t help but remember the demure young woman she was, her nose in a journal, scribbling down anything that she could, large round glasses slipping down her nose, with curly hair flying out of her sloppy bun, It was such a contrast to the woman she saw now and she loved it. Lucretia was now just so confident and sure of herself that it was entrancing to see.

Lup put her hand through Lucretia’s arm and gave a little rub to her shoulder. 

“You got us a private room and everything? Wow, really pulling out the stops for lil ol’ me, Crebabe.” 

“I mean, it’s not for you. I have to give a good impression to those two in there.” She replied dryly, squeezing her arm a little bit to her side. Lup let out a shocked gasp, putting a hand on her belly protectively. 

“I see, you’re just after my kids now!”

“You caught me red-handed, oh no! Next thing you’ll find out is that I’m taking them and posing for pictures with them so the press sees me kissing babies.” Lucretia smirked at her a bit as another mock gasp came out of her.

“Tsk, tsk, Creesh! Using my children as a means to improve your public image? What has being a public figure done to you? Absolute corruption on your part, that’s what.” For her part, Lucretia was chuckling softly at her as she drummed her fingers on her arms just a bit. “You know, for using their image for your own political gain, you have to compensate for them. For using my beautiful children’s faces, you’ll owe them 100,000 gold each. Before you ask, I will not be lowering the cost.” 

“You drive a hard bargain. It’ll be worth it, though.” They snickered together for a second as they walked back to their private room. The receptionist herself was rather quiet and walked stiffly. It kind of made Lup feel bad for her, she was probably so scared that she was going to mess something up in front of them that she couldn’t relax and be herself around them. Poor girl. 

The receptionist stiffly presented their room to them, a broad showy smile on her face to make her appear more relaxed. Lup didn’t have to look at her to know that it was forced and she was trying to make sure she did everything absolutely perfectly. The girl shouldn’t have to think that of course, she was probably not paid enough to perform perfectly.

“You can relax, babe. No need to outdo yourself, we’re just like everyone else.” Lup added a little wink to that. The girl stiffened a bit, her cheeks growing darker as she stared at Lup wide eyed, like she was surprised that she had talked to her in the first place. Lup was a little disappointed in that, she tried to talk to everyone she could talk to. It hadn’t been easier recently since she was trying to avoid the public as much as possible, but you know, just being photographed against your will things. 

“Okay!” She squeaked out a response as she very noticeably didn’t relax. Lup kept an easy smile on her face as she studied the girl some more. She was cute, no more than twenty probably. Dark wavy hair was pulled into a tight ponytail with some fly aways sticking out stubbornly. Most noticeably, she had a streak of gray coursing against her dark hair, giving her a cool edge to herself. Lup was taller than her she noticed, and honestly, she looked like she gave the best hugs when someone was having a rough day, but maybe she was biased. 

“What’s your name?”

The poor girl still didn’t relax, instead she swallowed nervously and looked anywhere but at her. This sweet angel.

“Uhh, it’s Lisa?” She framed it more like a question than giving her name. Lup just smiled at her again and put her hand on her shoulder as a way to comfort her. 

“I just want to tell you that you’re doing great, Lisa, and you have no reason to fret so much, kay?” Lisa looked at her finally, eyes wide that were already pooling with tears.

“Oh thank the gods. Thank you!” She sounded so relieved and she finally let her shoulders relax a little bit. There was still a strained smile on her face as she began to relax a little more, but Lup could understand that. Lup assumed it was nerve wracking meeting two of the seven people who had traveled the planes for 100 years, and then saved the planes eventually. They were legends after all, so it checks out as to why she was so nervous talking to the both of them.

Lup gave her another wink as she released her shoulder and went on inside the open spa door with Lucretia. Lisa gave a small shy smile back to her and closed the door behind once they were all inside. 

“There’s some tea and snacks if you get hungry! Also, if you want anything else, just call the front desk, okay? There should be a phone in there!” She told them before fully shutting the door softly. Lup and Lucretia turned to each other and smirked at one another as they moved towards the couches to sit down at. Lup’s back was absolutely killing her at this point and she really just needed to get off her feet. 

“Well, that was wild,” Lup announced, gently lowering herself into the chair. She had dispelled the minor illusion on herself at this point. It seemed like a fine idea since Lucretia probably had them swear to secrecy and all that. Lup really appreciated that everyone was on the same page of keeping the pregnancy private. Hopefully, it’ll last until after they were born and maybe a few months old? She wouldn’t bet on it, but damn was she hopeful. 

“Is someone being starstruck by us really all that wild now? Good gods have we lost our edge.” Lucretia lounged regally on the sofa in their space, dramatically putting a hand on her forehead just a tad bit. Lup laughed a little at that, propping her feet up on the very conveniently placed footstool. Lucretia probably requested it special just for her, the angel. 

“Oh yes, because we are supes well-versed in people being enamoured with us immediately. I mean, who would blame them? We’re catches.” Lup laughed as she gestured to the both of them. Even in this state she knew she was a catch, even though some days she really didn’t feel like she was all that attractive. Her skin being too dry, or her breaking out like she did when she was a teen elf. It sucked, but hell, all it took was one caught stare from Barry to realize that she still looked good. 

Lucretia lifted an empty cup from the table beside her to that and pretended to drink from it. Lup probably laughed more than she should have at that, especially since they were in a spa. However, she figured maybe it was fine. She was sure that Lucretia probably rented out the spa for the day so they wouldn’t be interrupted. Honestly she had no idea what Lucretia had planned for today if she was being honest. The last thing she thought would happen when she woke up this morning was be anywhere but her home getting her feet rubbed by her all too sweet lovely boy and suffering through paperwork. 

“What’s the game plan, Creesh?” She rested her hands on her belly just as a little movement came from the baby who liked to sit up top. They’d been calmer since they got into the spa, maybe they knew that spa etiquette required them to be relaxed, which helped Lup out a lot, actually. 

“That, I’m keeping a secret. You’ll just be constantly surprised as the day goes on.” Lucretia was being tight-lipped, and Lup knew that she couldn’t get it out of her no matter how hard she tried. Lucretia dealt with her and Taako’s shenanigans for 100 years, she knew how to bypass telling them anything. 

“Huh. Can’t believe my own sister won’t even tell me what she has in store for me. Rude.”

“You’ll find out soon enough. Besides, our day of fun starts in about….five minutes.” Lucretia actually took the time to look at her watchless clad wrist, which only added to the drama. Of course during the years they would pick up on little things that the others would do. Taako would do the same thing anytime anyone asked them about dinner and it travelled to the rest of the crew, especially with Merle if someone dared ask him how long a cast would be on for. 

Lup rolled her eyes at that good naturedly and decided to poke a little bit at her belly. That elicited a response of someone moving in her, getting angry that she would dare try to poke at them during nap time. As if they hadn’t been distracting her the entire time she was trying to get her work done. Even when she was trying to go to sleep they would be partying it up in there. They could at least let her poke just a little bit. 

“Five minutes? Yeah we can wait for that, now can’t we, kiddos?”

* * *

The sun was setting by the time both she and Lucretia got out of the spa, and honestly, Lup had never felt better. Lucretia had surprised her by presenting her with a massage, facial, and even a manicure, which she had desperately craved for a while, but always told herself that she would do it later when she felt like leaving the house. Thank the gods someone took initiative to just take her out and do it with her. Bonus points that it was Lucretia since she had been missing her a lot. 

Everything felt looser, she was walking a bit better, and she just really felt like a whole new person. There really was nothing like a good spa day, and now hopefully she’d be able to sleep tonight with how relaxed she felt. 

“Gods, I really have to thank you for this, Creesh, because Fantasy Jesus Christ did I need that.” She looked down at her nails a bit, finally seeing her nails once again well taken care of instead of half long and half short due to breaking off. Lup had told the nail tech to just do whatever they wanted since she really didn’t know what she wanted to do since she felt overwhelmed at that point with all the pampering. The nail tech went with a mint green base and pretty golden details on all of her nails, and honestly, she was in love with the color combination. It just looked really cute and fresh, and exactly what she needed. 

“Taako’s gonna be pissed because I’m pretty sure I’m gonna just pass right out as soon as I get home and not eat whatever he’s planning for dinner.”

Lucretia looked at her for a moment as she took hold of her hand again, leading her away from where they came earlier. 

“You’re not going home tonight, don’t you remember? You have a room booked for both you and Barry.” Lucretia reminded gently, squeezing her hand just a little bit. Lup nodded, the information coming back to her. Right, Taako was being weird again and making her leave the house for whatever reason. Maybe he was getting them out of the house because he just wanted some peace and quiet before the new arrivals came. That made sense, she could honestly get behind that, also she got to be as alone with Barry as she could be. 

“Wait, my pillow collection–”

“All taken care of. Barry had told me how important it was that you had all your pillows, don’t worry.” Lucretia led her to a lone car that was parked a little ways from where the spa was. If Lup didn’t trust Lucretia, then she would suspect that this was a kidnapping. Maybe a little voice in the back of her head was saying that, maybe, but it was so small she could easily block it out. The back door of the car opened, revealing Barry as he was waving at her. He looked like he had just taken a shower, so maybe he was just back from a bounty? Or maybe it was because whatever he was doing with Taako was more grueling, or maybe he just wanted to smell good to her. 

Lup couldn’t help but smile at him and increase the speed in her walking to get to him quicker. It also didn’t help that he had a love-sick expression on his face. 

“Hey, Lover, how’s it going? Miss me?” She called as she neared the car. An easy smile graced his face that had Lup feel dizzy while looking at it. She really didn’t know how he did it, even after all this time of being together, he still made her feel like a lovesick fool. Lup honestly wouldn’t want it any different. Barry’s smile morphed into a sheepish grin as he kept his eyes on her as she got closer to him, her heart growing faster with each step she took closer to him.

“Of course I’ve missed you. Feels like the longest time I’ve been without you in a while.” He answered. His eyes turned to Lucretia who was just a bit behind Lup now. He nodded respectfully at her as they got closer to the car. There was still an awkwardness there with a lot of them, but she assumed that was to be expected. It was a lot better than before, of course, they could now all sit at the dinner table during Candlenights and have conversations, but there was always a buzz of apprehension, especially coming from Lucretia. Not really knowing where she stood, and if she was allowed to have this moment of joy with family. “Thank you for treating her to this, Lucretia.”

Lucretia nodded back at that, loosening her grip on Lup’s hand as Lup got to the car door. 

“Of course, it was my pleasure.” Her voice was less tight than usual when speaking to him, which was an improvement. Lup wished they were all further along in getting back to being with one another, but she assumed it made sense since it took Barry and her so long to come back into sync with one another. It sort of halted any other relationships to improve for a minute, and now they could come back together as a family. She knew that Barry and Lucretia still cared about each other, she could tell how Barry talked about their time on the Starblaster about something someone had done. Lucretia was his baby sister, of course Barry still cared about her. Things were just rough right now. 

Lup gave Lucretia a tender smile and reached her hand out again for her to take. Lucretia took it like it was the most precious thing to her in the world. 

“I really loved today, Tia. We really need to hang out more.” Lup told her, squeezing her hand a little bit before letting go. Lucretia smiled at that and nodded, looking down a little bit at her feet.

“Yeah, we should.” She sighed a little bit, looking a little hesitant for a moment before she shook her head and stepped forward to close the distance between the two of them and hugging her. It was a strange feeling to have Lucretia initiate the touch, but it was nice. “I’ve just really missed you, Lup.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” She gave her a kiss on her temple as they hugged one another for another minute before separating. A thought came into mind, how would Lucretia get back? She didn’t really live on the moon full time anymore, she was pretty sure that Magnus had built her a small cottage somewhere as a little getaway from having to deal with all the pressures from getting donations. Still, she knew that they had taken a taxi to get here, but she didn’t know if she liked the idea of Lucretia getting in a taxi all by herself for some reason. “You wanna hitch a ride with us? I’m sure Bear won’t mind.”

Lucretia had a certain look on her face that Lup couldn’t quite decipher. It was almost mischievous, but Lup really didn’t know if that’s what she would call it. She shook her head as she assumed a picturesque pose, her head held high and shoulders back. 

“No need, I have a ride lined up already. I have some things to do anyway.” Lucretia smirked at her, giving her a friendly wave. “I’ll see you soon, okay? Goodnight, Lup, goodnight Barry.”

“Night, Lucretia!” Barry called out from the car as Lup said the same sentiment. Lucretia gave another wave before turning on her heel and leaving to go to her ride. Lup wondered who the ride was, maybe someone she worked with like Carey or even Killian. Who knows at this point, but she did know was that she was getting both very tired and very hungry. Lup turned to the car, seeing Barry climbing out of the car and assuming position right next to her. 

“Hey,” he greeted, bending down slightly to give her a kiss on her lips. She smiled at that, kissing him again and then going to his cheeks and kissing him there. 

“Hey yourself, Baroldine.” She gave him another kiss on his nose before booping him there a little bit and snickering as he let out a little huff from her antics. Before anything else could be said between them, Barry started helping her in the car, taking special care of how her center of gravity now sucked majorly. She really doesn’t think she can get over that. Lup used to really brag about it all the time, especially if someone accused her of tripping over something. No, she didn’t trip anything, she was perfect, thank you. Now, though, she found herself playing catch more and more. It wasn’t the best, especially if someone caught her doing it. 

She settled into the car and put her seat belt on. Barry must’ve seen that as satisfactory for him, since he closed her door gently and ran to the other side. That’s when she let herself see who was driving.

“Heyo, Capt’n, I thought you were still on an expedition?” Lup couldn’t mask her surprise in her voice this time, it really just shocked her to see him there, especially since this was probably the most she’s seen him in a year in a long time. She could go a full year without seeing him besides post cards sometimes, so to see him twice in one year was….a lot. 

“I made an exception for my favorite child, what can I say?” He looked at her through his rearview mirror, brown eyes full of humor. 

“Aw, Cap! I always knew I was your favorite, thanks for confirming!”

“Who says I was talking about you? I could’ve been talking about Barry.” At that moment Barry opened his side of the car door and slid into the car.

“What about me?”

“Cap was just saying that you were always his favorite child.”

“Aw fuck yeah, thanks, Dav!”

“I take it back, my favorite child is Magnus.” 

“Cap, we all know that’s not the case. Especially after he drank that expensive brandy in your office that one cycle.” Lup allowed herself to lean all the way into Barry’s space after he got his own seatbelt on and put her head on his shoulder. Barry wrapped an arm around her shoulders, he rubbed them a little bit, relaxing her even more. 

“You have a solid point there. I’m still not over it, that was perfectly aged brandy in there and I was saving it for a rainy day. However, who was the one who dared him to steal and drink that mhmmm?”

“Oh, that was all Taako, Dav. I’m pretty sure Lup and I were off doing something?”

“I think we were in the lab? We found something that we had to look at immediately. It was really cool.” Lup sighed a little as she explained, already feeling sleep come all too quickly to her. 

“Was that before or after you two got together?”

“Oh, definitely long before we got together. I remember looking at Lup taking notes and couldn’t help but think how nice it’d be to hold her hand and to kiss her.” Barry rubbed some more circles into her arm as Lup let out a breathy laugh. Gods, she was pretty sure she was thinking the same thing he was during that. They were such doofuses sometimes. “You probably don’t want to fall asleep, love. I think Taako hooked us up with dinner plans.”

“Mhmmm,” was the only response he got from her before she was lulled into sleep by Barry’s little arm massages and the gentle hum of the car. 

* * *

It felt like Lup had just closed her eyes before she was awakened by Barry trying to unfasten her seatbelt. She was pretty certain that he was going to carry her out of the car. Lup didn’t know how he would manage that, so in a way she was glad she had woken up by him trying to get her out. 

“Where are we?” She asked, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she began to help him with her seatbelt. She clicked it out of the slot and began to move to get out. Barry held his hand out to her and helped her out of the car. She got a good look at the hotel when she finally made it out. It looked rather modern, definitely took inspiration from the architecture from Tusun with big glass windows and a clean coat of white with black accents. There was a large fountain out in front that had water spewing from a woman holding a pot. It was an interesting choice to say the least, but she wasn’t complaining. 

“Some hotel Taako set us up with. He wouldn’t give me many details.” Barry explained as he went to the trunk of the car to get their things. “Taako picked out your clothes for tomorrow, by the way.”

“Great, he looked through my drawers! If I find one shirt missing then I’m raising hell.” She stretched her legs a little bit as she looked into the car again and saw Davenport still in the driver's seat. “You coming in with us, Cap?”

“Afraid not, Lup. I have lodgings elsewhere. I was just sent to make sure you two got here safely. I’ll see you soon enough, though! Barry told me that those two are going to refer to me as grandpa? Gotta make sure my schedule is clear to make a good first impression!” Lup could tell that he was trying hard to suppress his smile at being dubbed a grandpa, she stuck her tongue out at him for whatever reason, maybe to just be a pain.

“See ya soon, then Cap! It was real nice seeing you.” She saluted him, and in response to that, Davenport just rolled his eyes at her. “Does that mean we’re going to be seeing a lot more of you this year so you can get to know your grandkids?”

Davenport thought about that for a second, twirling his mustache a little bit. 

“You know, maybe I will. I do wanna have a relationship with them, after all. However, I think I should have permission on bringing them onboard the ship. They’re never too young to learn to sail.” 

“Yeah, you have a point there. I might just hold you up to that. Maybe when they’re like a year old?”

“I was thinking more like a month old.”

“Fat chance, Cap.” 

Davenport belly laughed at that, shaking his head as he wiped away a fake tear from his eye. 

“I’ll see you soon there, Lup.” 

Lup waved to him a little bit before closing the car door behind her. Barry had gotten all of the bags from the car and had the trunk closed. He hit the trunk twice, to which Davenport responded with two honks before leaving the scene entirely. 

“What were you two discussing?” Barry asked as he grabbed their two bags and threw them over his shoulder and held out his free hand to her. Lup gladly took it, lacing her fingers through his. 

“Oh you know, just talking about how Dav is going to teach our kids how to sail at a month old.” Barry choked a little bit at that, looking at her with wide eyes.

“Yeah, no, that’s way too young!”

“Relax, Bear, I told him they won’t be learning to sail until they’re at least a year old.” At that Barry actually considered it instead of telling her how much of a bad idea that was. Huh, now it seemed like a for real possibility. She mentally gave herself a pat on the back for that one. 

“You know, learning about water safety is actually better the younger they are….so maybe it’d be a good idea.” Lup shook her head at that and nuzzled in close to him. It was going to be a good night for the both of them. 

* * *

It was nice being able to spend time alone with Barry for a night. She didn’t really get to do it often, what with sharing a house with Taako and Kravitz. It was nice being able to not worry about making Taako grossed out with all of their stuff. It was also just nice being able to laze about the hotel room and not worry about someone coming in and using her hairbrush. They spent most of the morning cuddled up with each other, Barry had a book opened for the both of them to read as they ate their breakfast. Sometimes the kids would make an appearance by stirring a little bit and kicking her gently. It seemed like they also got the memo about it being a chill morning. They even let her sleep last night which had surprised her. Whatever the massage therapist did yesterday really had them knocked out as well. 

Barry didn’t seem to be in any rush, either, which was really nice. They really could just spend this whole time together and not worry about anything to come crashing down on them. They went down to the indoor pool to relax a bit, and Lup was surprised by how empty the hotel was. She thought that it wasn’t very populated last night because they had arrived later than usual, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. Taako probably got them a pretty exclusive hotel so no one could really get them riled up with autographs and the like. 

Lup was swimming in the pool, (something about something about swimming being good for pregnant people, or so did one of the midwives in the birthing classes told her) and couldn’t help but really appreciate how much weight was taken off her front as soon as she started to swim. She hadn’t even realized how heavy her belly was until she was in the water just letting herself float. Gods, it felt so fucking nice. 

“Hey, Lup!” Barry called, she looked over at him in response. He was still under the large pool umbrella that they found, fully sunblocked and everything. Her poor boy got sunburned if he even just thought about the sun. Didn’t help that he was from a planet with two suns, so he still over-compensated how much sunblock he actually needed. “I just got a call from Taako saying we need to head back asap!”

“Aw fuck, what did he do this time? If he can’t get the input on the TV to work again, then I don’t know what to tell him!”

“I promise it’s nothing like that! He just misses you I think.”

“He’s a sap in a half! Just give me a minute okay? I’m finally feeling weightless again and it’s fucking me up!” She couldn’t help the elation in her voice at it. As much as she was excited to be bringing these kids into the world, she couldn’t help but hate being pregnant. Everything hurt most of the time, and sometimes they kicked too hard that it caused sore spots in specific areas on her belly. Her hips were in pain, her boobs were getting way too big for her now, to the point she regretted ever wanting them any bigger.

Right now, though, nothing hurt. She felt absolutely wonderful and almost like herself. She really couldn’t wait for them to get here, though, just so she could have her body back to herself again. Lup really didn’t understand how people could just talk about how amazing pregnancy was, she just didn’t understand it. She knew that it treated people differently, so maybe they were having the time of their lives, meanwhile she got the short end of the stick.

She stayed in the water for another few minutes before getting out, and almost immediately everything settled back to being heavy. By the gods, she just wanted to not be pregnant anymore. Barry handed her a towel when she got over to him and she immediately wrapped herself up in it and sat down on one of the chairs.

“They really heavy today?”

“Yeah, one of them is in my pelvis and the other one is right on top of them. They’re moving a lot now.” Lup rubbed her under belly a bit, feeling what she assumed to be a head shape, but that didn’t seem to be right. “I think one of them is getting in position, Bear.”

Barry put his own hand on her belly, right where her hand was.

“Let’s just hope they stay in there until the day of.” He told her. She could hear the fear in his voice, knowing he was afraid of them coming any earlier than the agreed time with the doctor. She gave him a quick peck on his forehead as she patted his hand really quick so she could stand up again and go back to their hotel room to get ready.

“What’s going on with Taako anyway? Everyone has been acting rather cagey recently, and I don’t know how I feel about that.” She announced as she got up from her spot with a lot of help from Barry. She wrapped her arm around Barry’s back to hold onto his shoulder as he did the same. He gave her a kiss on the head as he hummed a little bit in response. 

“I think he’s just a little stressed because it’s nearing time for those two, and now everyone is feeling it.” Barry was lying right through his teeth and Lup knew it. She was sure that he knew that she knew that he was lying. Lup side-eyed him, and he was trying to not look at her, bingo. He was hiding something from her and she didn’t know how she felt about that. There was probably a reason why Barry was keeping it secret, so she didn’t press, instead, she and him went to their room, packed up the room, and got dressed to go back home. Taako for some reason packed her a nice red sweater dress with a soft pair of black leggings. She was glad he picked something out comfortable for her to wear and had plenty of room in it. Props to Taako, he did a good job. 

“You ready to go?” Barry asked, grabbing both of the bags. Lup nodded, pulling on her winter boots and adjusting her dress around her bump a bit. 

“Yeah, I’m ready.” She left quite a bit of gold on the table for the cleaners, and then they were off. 

* * *

Lup didn’t know what to expect when she got to the house. One thing she really didn’t expect was all of the cars in their driveway. She looked at Barry as the taxi pulled in, pressing her lips together as she was about to ask him a question. Barry held a hand up as he passed the gold to the taxi driver and got out of the car and made his way over to her side and opened her door to help her out. He was silent as he helped her out and then grabbed their belongings again, making Lup a little peeved about. She had no idea what was going on, that had everyone so tight lipped, it was kind of annoying to her. They thanked the taxi driver and they started walking up to the front door. 

“Barry, what’s going on?” Lup asked, knowing that she was letting her exasperation show in her tone. Barry rubbed her back in response to that, and just opened the front door to her to let that speak for itself. 

When he opened the front door, she really didn’t expect to be greeted by multi-colored balloons and streamers in the foyer. For a minute, she thought that she had forgotten Barry’s birthday and that’s why he was giving her the silent treatment, but no, she knew that Barry’s birthday wasn’t until the end of the month, so no, she was still good on that front. She thought back to everyone else’s birthdays, but for whatever reason, she couldn’t pull up any birthdays that were coming up anytime soon. She looked over to Barry, eyebrows raised in a confused manner. Barry for his part, waved her into the door, giving her a look that told her to go inside. 

Lup stepped in, noticing more balloons gracing the place, and more streamers. What in the actual fuck?

“Taaks? Krabby Patty? What did you do to our house?” She called out, rounding the corner to their living room and just saw a huge banner loudly proclaiming  _ ‘WELCOME BABIES!’ _

Then, everything clicked into place. Oh. Okay. Huh. They were throwing her and Barry a baby shower. That makes….a lot of sense of course. It was almost time for them to show up, and this was a typical thing to do when babies were preparing to come and or after they were born. This checks out. 

“Oh, what the fuck.” Was the only thing that came out of Lup’s mouth as she took in the scene. There was a huge snack table lined up, complete with a chocolate fountain. There was a large section of the living room that was piled with all sorts of colorfully wrapped presents. And right on the couch, were seven out of nine of the most important people in her life. 

“Glad you love it, Ma’am! Taako worked really hard at bossing everyone around on how everything should be set up!” Angus got up from the couch, still sporting his straight out of Fantasy Newsies look even in his older age. She couldn’t blame him, if the fit works, then why change it? Besides, it was super iconic, and makes finding him in a library so much easier. 

“I wasn’t bossing around, Agnes, I was simply making sure it was done right.” Taako challenged, rising up from his own position and coming over to her side. Angus and her shared a look of utter disbelief. Lup knew full well that he was being bossy, but it also meant that he did want things to be done perfectly, and it was for her and Barry and his future nephews or nieces. 

Lup stepped closer to Angus and put her hands on his shoulders and started appraising him. He had grown taller than her around two years ago, and even now it fucks her up. She was so used to him being this little kid who needed to use the footstool to reach the cabinets. Now he was much taller than her, and she was asking him to get her the bowls from the top shelf. The little skutch. He should’ve just stayed tiny, it would’ve been better for him, especially since when he grew passed Taako, he didn’t hear the end of it. 

“I see you didn’t heed my advice to stop growing, McDangus. Tsk, tsk. Make sure to grab some extra coffee so you don’t grow anymore, kay?” She joked. Angus for his part rolled his eyes at her and shook his head. “Also, this is my first time seeing you this year, what gives?”

“I was on a case!”

“I think you can take a break from your case to see your aunt every so often!” Angus puffed his cheeks out childishly for a moment before nodding. “Besides, who’s going to teach these two to be jr sleuths? You gotta get them in trouble there.”

“I think they’ll be perfectly capable in getting into trouble on their own, Auntie Lup.” He opened his arms up a little bit to welcome her in a hug that she gladly accepted. She gave him a little kiss to his temple before pulling back away from him.

“Missed you, kiddo. You gotta come over for dinner more often. Who knows what they’re feeding you over at those dorms.”

“That’s exactly what Dadko said to me when I arrived this morning.” Angus groaned. Poor kid was getting the lecture from the both of them, probably not what he was expecting when he arrived back home for the day. However, she was pretty sure that was how they always greeted him whenever he finally had time to come over. He probably just wanted to catch a break from it, however, Lup was officially gearing into Mom Mode. 

Lup turned to everyone else who was on the couch. Lucretia, Davenport, Merle, Magnus, and Kravitz were all looking at her as she placed her arms on her hips.

“And to think that all of you were able to keep this a secret. Wow, have to admit, I’m rather impressed.” She congratulated. “Tell me, is this just an intimate affair or are there more people coming?”

“Just intimate. Taako didn’t want to overwhelm you too much, but everyone else found out about the shower, thus why all the gifts.” Kravitz answered, gesturing to the plethora of presents in the corner. Lup had to admit that she was glad that there was only immediate(ish) family here. Between the spa day yesterday, the hotel night, and now this, she would’ve been spent if she had to entertain more people.

“Also, Magnus almost did let it slip to you in the doctor’s office that one time. It was part of our earlier plans when we thought there was going to be a gender reveal. Honestly didn’t know why we thought that was a possibility.” Lucretia explained, looking to the others as they all shrugged their shoulders in response to that. 

“I had a neat idea that included aloe for that!”

“Yeah, that didn’t even make it onto the drawing board, old man!” Magnus clapped a hand on Merle’s shoulder at that which had him wincing from the brute force of it. 

“Yeah, Maggie, I think we need another discussion about knowing your own strength.”

The day started to carry on just like that. Taako came over with a chair for Lup and Barry at some point, and he was hustling all around the place making sure there were enough drinks and food on the table, and making sure that Lup was well taken care of. He started passing out papers for a game that asked everyone when they thought the kids would arrive, who they’ll resemble more, how big they’ll be at birth and so on. There were some fun responses, like Magnus thought that they would have pink hair since she used to dye her hair a lot back during the Starblaster days, and somehow that changed her genetics. Merle said that they were going to be born before her scheduled surgery day, which had both her and Barry screaming at him. Merle had taken it like a champ and just added it just seemed more likely. 

There was a game of guess how big her belly was now that Angus had won. She was convinced that he had somehow cheated since his tape had perfectly fit her belly. Probably somehow made the tape magic so that it just stretched to the correct amount, the little rascal. 

They video-called Marlena since she couldn’t make it there in person and she showed off baby pictures of Barry, which is all Lup really wanted. Barry’s face was as red as ever and he was covering his face in his hands as Lup rubbed his back a little bit as she cooed over how cute baby Barry was. 

They ate a lot and really it was more of a reunion for all of them than a baby shower, which she really preferred. As much as she was excited about her kids being here, she really missed spending time with her family. It hadn’t been the same since she got pregnant, and it wouldn’t be the same ever again after they were born, so to have these moments with all of them was really precious to her. She opened some of the presents, which were a lot of diapers, a lot of onesies, and other necessities for newborns, to which she was overwhelmingly thankful for. 

Just after their little dessert hour, Taako stood up from his chair ceremoniously, to the point where Lup had thought he was just getting all of the empty plates. 

“There’s one more surprise for you, Lulu, and it’s from all of us. So, if you would ever so kindly put on this blindfold.” He presented her a black blindfold to which she looked at curiously, looking at all of her family. 

“What did you guys do?”

“Just put on the blindfold and you’ll find out!”

Lup grabbed the blindfold from Taako and put it over her eyes. Gods, sometimes her family was a bit extra. Then again, so was she, so it all checks out. 

Very familiar hands tapped her arms to haul her up from her chair. She couldn’t help but laugh at the dramatics of all of this and allowed him to help her up for the billionth time today and began following him to wherever he led her. Even though she had thought she knew the house she had been living in for years in, it was a lot different walking around blindfolded. She really relied on Barry to not let her bump into any walls, or stub her toes. It really did feel like a totally different place now that she couldn’t see anything, and if Barry hadn’t been holding onto her, and she knew that he was there, she was pretty sure she would be panicking. It was over soon enough because suddenly they stopped and Barry released his hold in her.

“Okay, Lulu, on three okay? Three, two, one, take it off.”

Lup couldn’t rip the blindfold off fast enough. Even though it was on for a short period of time, it still took a second for her eyes to adjust, but when they did….she couldn’t help but gasp loudly at what she was looking at. 

It was so weird looking at a space that just a few days ago had been covered in boxes and just a disaster in a nutshell. Barry and her had tried their best to clear it out, but there was still so much stuff that just couldn’t be sorted, and they didn’t always have time, but now, the space had transformed. She had been so worried about not having a functioning nursery, but now. Now, it was more than functioning. 

She tentatively took a step inside, and noticed how the carpet was brand new. She looked around the space, seeing a large painted mural of their journey through the cycles. The image of her and Barry during their duet looked back at her, music notes highlighting the border of the wall. There was a rocking chair in the corner fitted with a handmade pillow and cushion and complete with a footstool. Two cribs were at the mural wall, each with hand knitted blankets of green and yellow. Two identical mobiles were above the cribs, complete with seven little birds going up in a dizzying circle. There was a shelf filled with little knickknacks, but most notably, two little captain hats sitting proudly and fully on display. Little ravens were on the shelf, too, looking down at the two cribs respectfully. She turned around and saw a little dresser and changing pad, pretty ivy creepy up on the wall and forming the word  _ ‘joy’ _ above the mirror. There was a small round rug on the floor with cute dancing skeletons on them that made Lup let out a watery laugh. 

She was so overwhelmed with seeing the room that she had been dreading to work on suddenly all complete that she just sort of crumpled in on herself as she openly sobbed. 

“You guys!” She choked out, making herself cry even harder. In an instant her family was at her back and were holding onto her tight. “Holy shit!”

“Do you like it?”

“Do I like it? I fucking love this so much, holy shit! This is just….so wonderful! How long did it take you guys to do this?”

“We sort of just tried to do it all in one go. Thank everything for magic users!” Magnus proclaimed, rubbing her on the shoulders. She let out another laugh at that as more tears sprung into her eyes. 

“Haven’t you all heard not to make the pregnant person cry? This is so rude. Gods, I love you all so much.” She sobbed. In the midst of her family all surrounding her in the room that they all helped with each other on, she had never felt more loved. For them to go out of their way to do this for her was the best thing that could happen to her. Gods, she loved her family so much. In response to the commotion, the kids inside of her decided to move around wildly, excited over the room that was made with love by their family.

* * *

“You know, I still can’t believe that you got the dates wrong for your anniversary vacation.” Lup called out from her spot on Taako’s couch. She was now officially 35 weeks, and was going into surgery the next week. She couldn’t believe how quickly the time went by. She shifted a little bit as another pain coursed through her, causing her to hiss a little bit. Taako didn’t seem to notice her pain as he wildly packed his belongings.

“You know, it’s not so much we got the dates wrong, it’s more like Kravitz got called in because two very specific Reapers are on parental leave so he had to handle the crisis. Thus, we had to reschedule.” Taako threw a sparkly skirt in his bag which caught her attention. 

“Hey, isn’t that mine?” 

“Depends on how you define yours.”

“You got it from my drawer.” 

“Yeah, like months ago. I’ll give it back, don’t worry.” He waved a little at her as he sorted more of his things. Lup practically had to roll to get off the couch by now which was rather annoying. She got up slowly as she made her way over to his suitcase to pluck up her sparkly skirt.

“It’s not so much of giving it back, it’s more so you should’ve asked me before taking it!” Taako threw another article of clothing towards the suitcase that missed the goal by a couple of inches. Lup plucked it off his bed and stuffed it in the bag, along with the skirt. Sure she was mad that he didn’t ask, but it wasn’t like she had been looking for it in the first place. Also, it probably wouldn’t be fitting for a hot minute.

“Yeah, that’s a Taako’s bad on that, but I needed something that looked better in the dark than in the daylight. That’s the perfect skirt for disco night.” Lup rolled her eyes at that and looked over at all the other things he had packed. He was going all week, so it made sense as to why he was packing a lot, but it was all of his summer clothes, which again, made sense since he was going somewhere that was actually warm, the lucky bastard. He was missing out on the blizzard that was coming in tonight.

There was another pain that coursed through her that had her wincing and had her clutching her belly. This time, Taako wasn’t distracted and he caught the pain on her face.

“That’s not a  _ ‘I was just kicked in the rib face,’ _ what’s up? You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I already got checked out from the doctor last week because I was having these same pains. Just pre-labor pains.” She waved him off as he came over to her. He didn’t look entirely convinced at that as he gave her a side-eye, dumping more clothes in the suitcase before going in and started to actually organize everything. 

“You sure? I can always tell Krav that we need to postpone again.”

“No, Taaks, I’m fine. Have fun in your beautifully warm getaway, and remember me as I’ll be shivering away due to this blizzard.” She patted his arm a little bit as she grabbed some of his clothes to start helping him out with organizing his clothes. 

“How’s Barry been coping with this since you’ve had them for a week?”

“Oh, he hasn’t been coping. He has a bag all packed and ready to go just in case anything starts happening. He’s been watching me like a hawk, which is sweet, but I’m getting annoyed by it now.” She explained, packing away the shirt she folded neatly in a corner of his suitcase. 

She had to admit, these pains definitely felt different from the pains she was experiencing with pre-labor. However, she had talked to her doctor about it, and they had checked her. Everything looked fine, and it was probably just her body preparing. The doctor had reassured her that she still had plenty of time before they were born. 

They continued to fold as another pain came in just eleven minutes later, causing her to pause in her folding and for Taako to give her a concerned look. 

“Lu–”

“Taaks, I promise, I’m fine.”

“Okay, yeah, fine, sure, you’re fine! You are peachy-keen as Auntie would say!”

“I am fine! Fantasy Jesus!” She was exasperated by everyone being on their toes around her, she knew that she was close, but her doctor said she was fine, and she trusted her doctor. They wouldn’t be here until the next week, and thank goodness for that because she and Barry still didn’t have names. 

They carried on packing in silence after that, Lup trying to mask whenever she felt another pain come in. She knew that she didn’t fool Taako at all with that because he kept looking over at her every time her hand went to her belly, and patted at it as the pain came through. It was just pre-labor. Everything was fine. It wasn’t time yet and she was okay with that. 

Still, when Taako and Kravitz were at the front door and they were saying goodbye to them for the week, Taako still pulled her to the side.

“If anything does happen, call me, okay?” 

“Taako–”

“Okay, Lup?”

“Okay, fine. I’ll call you if anything happens. Scouts honor.” They hugged goodbye and then Barry and her were alone for the full week.

The first night that Taako was gone for went without a hitch, and she couldn’t help but laugh at him a little bit. He was going to feel so silly when he came back the next week. Nothing was going to happen. The blizzard hadn’t shown that night, as it was now looking like it was coming the next night. Instead, it just made the roads too icy to drive on, whoops. The pre-pains were still coming, and they felt like they were getting stronger, but she assumed that was normal. They were just setting her up for what labor felt like, so it made sense that they were becoming stronger. 

Barry and her were getting into bed with the wind now howling at their window. They were in for a real treat the next morning with all the snow.

“You still feel fine, right?” Barry asked, tossing back their heavy blanket so he could get into bed. Lup did the same on her side and rolled her eyes as she gingerly got into bed. 

“Yes, Barry, I’m still fine. Did Taako talk to you or something?”

“Maybe a little bit. I also just notice how you’ve been acting today.” 

“Babe, I promise, I’m fine. The doctor said I was fine. Everything is still looking good for next week, okay?” She nestled into bed just as that weird pain started to happen again. Great, now her husband and her brother were getting into her head. Wonderful.

“Okay, just wanted to be sure.” Barry climbed into bed and got comfortable before turning to her to kiss her goodnight. Lup gave him her lips, smiling a little bit at that. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.” She replied, giving him another kiss before turning out their night and nestling up next to him to sleep.

It didn’t feel like much time had passed since she had fallen asleep. She was a bit annoyed, it seemed that she had peed herself or something. Great. She was going to have to wake Barry up so they could get these sheets in the wash as soon as possible, and then spend time picking out new sheets to put on the bed. She pushed the covers off of her so she could change her pants, turning on the light in the process. Lup didn’t really notice anything when she turned on the light at first, too preoccupied with getting these pajama pants off of her. It wasn’t until she saw her underwear did she realize something wasn’t right. The liquid wasn’t pee.  _ Aw shit. _

“Barry!” Her voice cracked in alarm as her heart pounded in her ears. Aw shit this was not happening, she wasn’t due until next week, this wasn’t happening, no way this was happening. She started feeling more pain that were much more intense than it was before and  _ fuck this was happening.  _ “ _ Barry!” _

Barry jolted awake, jumping up in alarm when he heard his name. He looked blindly around the room, hands fumbling to put his glasses on. 

“What’s wrong?”

She really didn’t want to put it into words, but she couldn’t really deny that this was happening anymore, and aw fuck they weren’t ready to have them yet. They didn’t even have names for Raven Queen’s sake!

“I need you to call Taako.” She tried to be as calm as possible, even though she was losing her shit right now. “My water just broke, and I need you to call Taako.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soon my google will stop thinking that I'm pregnant. I'll finally stop getting ads about cute maternity clothes......fuck yeah......
> 
> Thank you all for being so patient as I get my life back in order! I took 2 weeks off because I wanted to do something that I hope will make sense next week? We're almost to these sweet babes......thank goodness.
> 
> There will be something next Wednesday on my Tumblr about these two demons I call babies. If you want to check it out you can follow me @MoonSympathizer! I normally cry most of the time, but it's fine. 
> 
> Thank you to those who comment and kudos! I love you guys!!
> 
> (It's still Tuesday in my heart)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a labor and a birth scene!

Barry was looking at her with sleep in his eyes. Blinking slowly a little bit as she saw his brain start trying to function after the sudden wake up call. His hair was ruffled and his glasses a little crooked on his nose from hastily putting them on. 

“Your water broke?” He asked, his voice laced with sleep and a little slurred. Lup nodded at him, and he honestly looked so confused for a moment as he looked over to her nightstand. He wrinkled his eyebrows a little bit, scrubbing his face to help himself wake up a little bit more. “Do you want me to get you a new one? I don’t think we need to call Taako?”

Oh for fucks sake. Under any other circumstances, she would think he was being adorable for thinking she broke her water cup, but right now, she was in some gods awful pain and currently stressed because this wasn’t going according to her birth plan. She wasn’t supposed to go through this, she was supposed to go in next week and have them removed surgically. By the Raven Queen, did these two already have a sense of humor. Well, there was no denying that they were hers. 

“Not that, Barry. My water, you know, my amniotic sac that’s around these two? Yeah, it broke and I need you to call Taako to tell him that they’re coming.” Maybe she was over-explaining it, but right now, she was sleep deprived and in pain. She really didn’t have any patience with anything right now. Huh, maybe it was genetic and that’s why they’re coming now. Fuck. She certainly was not looking forward to Taako telling her off when he got here. 

For his part, Barry stared at her again, the gears in his brain really going for it as he was still half asleep. He blinked once, twice, as her words sunk into his brain, his lips pursing together. It wasn’t until she doubled over their dresser in pain that it fully hit him. One moment he was just staring at her, the next his eyes widened as she let out a low groan, throwing off his covers as he fumbled to get out of bed. 

“Now?” He shouted, nearly face-planting on the floor. She swayed back and forth through the pain as best as she could as she watched him scamper about the room, throwing things around as he looked for his stone. “They’re not supposed to be here until next week!”

“Try telling them that!” Lup rocked herself a little bit more, leaning heavily on their dresser and trying to remember her deep breathing exercises. They were so much easier to do when someone was telling her when to do them and when she wasn’t in so much pain. Fucking bitch shit, this was the absolute worse. She has had multiple bones broken before and has had things set without pain medication. She had thought she dealt fine with pain. This was on a whole new level. 

“Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck, where is it?” She heard Barry rummaging through their belongings as he tried to find his stone. “Have you started timing them?”

“Of course I’ve started timing them. After some time, I’m in a weird ass pain that’s hard to describe!” She knew that she wasn’t being the most helpful, and knew he was just asking her because he was trying to gauge how much time they had. However, she was in a mood and didn’t want to deal with having to set up a timer in order to figure things out. “Check yesterday's jean pocket, babe.”

Barry left her first comment drop, she really hoped that he knew that she didn’t mean it….much. Instead, he ditched their vanity area and went to their laundry basket. He was making a mess of things as she looked around the room. Their things were strewn everywhere, and she knew that it was to find his stone to get her brother here. She just had to keep telling herself that. Also, he was a little scatterbrained since he was just hit with the news that he was about to be a dad way sooner than he had initially thought. Honestly, if she were in his position, she would probably be doing the same thing. He got his yesterday's jean, and started tearing through them, hands fumbling over them and dropping them on occasion. 

“Aha!” He exclaimed once he got it, getting it out with shaky hands. “You’re the best.”

“I better fucking be the best, Jesus Fantasy Christ, Bazz! I get that when I knew where your phone was, but here I am, about to have two little de– _ fuck!”  _ She was cut short not by a contraction, but instead by a sharp kick. She guessed it was fine, but no, it wasn’t. They were currently making her night rather….intense, she felt like she should be able to get her aggressions out as much as she should during this. Barry was by her side immediately, looking at her wildly, but most importantly, he was not setting up a frequency with her brother. “Barolthan, please for the love of the Raven Queen,  _ get my brother. _ ”

Barry’s hands were hovering over her back, stone in hand. However, upon hearing her tell him to get her brother, he lept into action and started to set up a frequency. Lup tried to breathe deeply and rock back and forth. If there was a way to get to the hospital, she’d gladly take it. Gods fuck, maybe the ambulances were able to come out. Please tell her the ambulances were able to come out. She started to roll her hips a little bit, hoping beyond hoping it would relieve some pain as she waited for her brother to pick up. Except, he didn’t pick up. Barry tried again. No answer. A third time, no answer. By the time he didn’t pick up for the fourth time, she started to yell obscenities. 

“Aw fucking dollar humping bullshit ass face!” She really couldn’t process how loudly she said it, but by the scratchiness in her throat, she assumed it was pretty loud. “Oh don’t fucking worry, Lup! I’ll have my stone on me at all times! If you need me, I’m just a call away! Fake ass motherfucking bitch!”

Under normal circumstances, she knew that her reaction wasn’t the most just or reasonable. Taako was on his anniversary trip, he was probably spending time with Kravitz. Maybe he was in the shower and or at breakfast and had just left his stone in his room by accident. However, these weren’t normal circumstances and she was in too much pain to think of anything fair to say about her brother and why he wasn’t picking up. 

“Do you want me to see if I can find him?” Barry was trying to be calm, that much she picked up on. Lup could still hear the quiver in his voice when he asked the question, and she could see his reflection in the mirror as his eyes were wide and his hands were slightly shaking. Fuck, they weren’t really prepared for any of these. 

“ _ Please,” _ It was the only thing she could manage when another contraction made her grit her teeth so hard that it felt like they were going to break. She let out a deep growl from the back of her throat as she started rocking back and forth again to work through the pain. All the birthing classes that had told her to remain calm and to not make any loud noises could fuck themselves with a saw. Whatever helped with the pain is what matters. Barry didn’t even reply to her, not wasting any time to summon his scythe and ripped through to the place where Taako and Kravitz were staying.

She rocked through the contraction as best as she was able, really relying on the dresser to support her as she breathed. Gods dammit why did it have to be now when she barely slept? Why couldn’t they have let her get some sleep before being thrusted into sleepless nights?

“Really making a great first impression, aren’t we?” She mumbled to the both of them, really trying to remember her breathing exercises. Her fists were clenched in her hands, causing her fingernails to be pressed in so tightly that she was sure she was breaking skin. Lup didn’t even know where her stone was to check the time and track when things were happening, and her internal clock was also fucked, so she didn’t really know how long Barry and Taako were. All she could really do was track how many contractions she’s had since Barry left. Alas, she lost track pretty quickly as her brain went into overdrive about the pain.

Another contraction rolled in, this one not too taking long at all since the last one. She hadn’t been expecting it and she couldn’t withhold the yell she let out, sounding nearly animalistic at that point by the pain that just ripped through her. She hadn’t even realized that Barry was back until she felt his hands on her back and rubbing it. 

“ _ Don’t _ , Bluejeans.” She growled. Lup really didn’t want him touching her right now. She knew it took two to tango and all that jazz, but her brain couldn’t help but blame him for everything right now. It was irrational and not at all accurate, but she couldn’t be bothered to think rationally and fairly at the moment. 

For Barry, his hands flew off her back and he backed away from her.

“I got Taako here–”

“Holy fuck, Lulu, what gives?” Oh, if his neck was near her hands and if she could sit up without being in pain, then she would wring his fucking neck. 

“What gives? What gives? I’m currently trying to pass a watermelon through my birth canal which I wasn’t expecting to happen,  _ Taako. _ ” She felt like she sounded and looked crazy. Her hair was everywhere since she didn’t put it up the night before. She really didn’t think she needed to put it up, and just wanted to give her hair a break for a bit. At least for this week since it’ll probably be up and out of her face for the next 5 years. 

Taako backed away from her when she snapped at him, putting his hands out in a peace gesture. Lup saw him glance at Barry nervously, probably asking what the fuck he needed to do since he had never seen her like this. Then again, she has never been in this sort of pain before. The closest was when she broke both her leg and arm one cycle from goofing around with Magnus. This was just leagues worse. 

“Is there any way we can get to the hospital?” She panted, still rocking her hips as she leaned over the dresser. If there was a way that she could do this there, then she would feel a whole lot better than having them at home. 

“I’ll go check if they’re making emergency runs.” Barry announced, scurrying out the door, his stone in hand. He was probably trying to give her as much space as possible, which she appreciated from him right now. Maybe later she would let him touch her, but right now, she couldn’t help but be annoyed with any touch from him at the moment. She’ll most likely feel bad about it later and snuggle up to him again, but she really couldn’t worry about that right now. She had to worry about the two trying to make their entrance. 

For his part, Taako stood kind of in shock as she rocked back and forth, not knowing what to do. He was probably losing his shit right now, but instead of running around like Barry, he was just frozen. Lup turned to look at him to get a better look, her hair blocking her view a bit, but from what she could tell, he had his arms out to act as though he was trying to help. Maybe she should throw him a bone and tell him what to do.

“Taaks,” she took a deep breath as she felt another one coming. They were getting progressively closer together even more intense. “Put my hair up, and then start making calls to everyone, okay?”

She grunted as it finally hit her like a train. She slammed her fist on the dresser, trying to do anything to relieve the pain. She didn’t know if that necessarily did anything, but it was worth a shot, plus it felt nice to hit something. Lup breathed in deeply and then slowly released, really trying out her exercises this time. Gods fucking dammit, why did this hurt so badly?

Lup knew eventually that once she got pregnant, then the baby had to come out eventually. She just hadn’t been expecting two trying to come out in the beginning of this whole thing, and her brain hadn’t fully processed that information until just now. Fucking hell, it really was settling in now that she was about to have two of them. Holy shit fuck. 

She heard Taako pad behind her and tentatively started to brush out her hair with his fingers. He was careful not to get the sensitive spots in her head, something that he knew very well the placement of from years of putting her hair back when she didn’t have the hands to do it. He piled her hair up into a high bun on top of her head as best as he was able, wrapping it around his hands a bit before putting it on her head and tying it off. She’s always liked getting her hair touched by other people, always felt the nice reassurance from it, and it reminded her of when Auntie used to braid it. Lup felt mild comfort from it this time, and wished that it could’ve just lasted a little longer to find a deepset comfort before her next pain. However, Taako finished as quickly as he was able, probably terrified over what was happening, and walked out of the room quickly, leaving her by her lonesome once again. Fuck. 

As much as she was perturbed by most people right now and everything just set her off, she had to admit she hated feeling alone. No one had turned on their big lights, so the lone lamp was still on, trying its best to fill up the room with as much light as possible. Apparently some people recommend the whole dark room thing for labor and delivery. It, however, just made Lup more anxious. 

She started to notice her forearms shaking from holding her on the dresser for so long. Maybe it was from that, or maybe it was because of the rising panic attack that was mounting its way up. She couldn’t get that way, though. She had to remain as calm as possible and pretend that everything was going to be all right. Slowly, she shifted her position to be upright, no longer leaning over the dresser, and now trying to sit up straight again. Maybe if she could walk around some then it’ll feel a bit better. They were always recommending moving while in labor to help with the delivery. 

Her walking was more like a sad shuffle and she couldn’t help but hum Fantasy Electric Slide just a little bit between pains. At this point it’s whatever kept her feeling a little less frazzled as things were certainly not what she expected them to be. She had pictured herself getting a fitful sleep, but not like this. Definitely not like this.

Barry was the first to come back in, his hair looked like he had kept raking through it with his fingers over and over. If she had been feeling like it, she would’ve ran her own fingers in his hair and smoothed it down. Maybe she would’ve laughed at him and kissed his nose. The things that change in a couple of hours. Lup hadn’t been expecting to be a mother this soon, and now she was petrified over it. She didn’t think anyone wasn’t, even if they were prepared. Her and Barry would soon be welcoming two little ones into the world and she has no idea what the fuck she was going to do. No amount of baby classes prepared anyone enough for this. Sure, she knew how to change a diaper, but that was on a baby doll, not on a squirming baby who was trying to fall off the changing table. 

Barry’s face was stricken, and she could feel her stomach drop, knowing what the answer was. 

“Oh no,” she shook her head as she found their bed and sat on it carefully, wincing slightly. Barry nodded, his stone clenched in his hand.

“Oh no is right. They’re not running any due to the storm. Apparently it’s a lot worse than they anticipated.” He explained. Lup felt the color drain from her face as another pain ripped through, she opened her mouth to yell out, only for it to be silent. Apparently she couldn’t even use her voice to announce how much pain she was in. Barry stood back, but looked torn as she breathed through the contraction. She knew that he didn’t want to make her even more uncomfortable, and gods did she love that. Lup also felt bad knowing that he was probably panicking as well as her. The pain ended, and all she could do was look up at him, scared out of her mind. 

“What are we going to do?” She asked, voice small. She knew the answer, it was obviously birth these two where they were. She just couldn’t believe that this was what was happening. Lup was so sure that this was one of her stress dreams she had every so often and that she was about to wake up in cold sweat. That’s it. She just thought that the sweat was her water, she was fine, she was totally fine….she really needed to stop lying to herself. 

Barry just hung his head down at that and she couldn’t help but be in agreement with him. Lup knew what he was thinking, knew that what they were doing was risky, but they didn’t have any other choice. Lup was prohibited from using rifts and magical doors due to poor research on the effects it could have on babies. She also knew that if anything happened to either of them, she would never forgive herself. She would think that there could’ve been  _ something _ she could’ve done. She could’ve stressed how painful what she thought were pre-labor pains were. 

However, they were beyond should’ve, could’ve, would’ve’s. They had to keep their minds on what was happening now, and what was happening now was that they were coming. They were also ill-prepared to be having them at home. What did they even need for that? Lup had never been around a birth before, not even during their 100 years. She had no idea what they needed to do. Also, her birthing class really didn’t cover home births. It was an optional class that she hadn’t expected to be needing. 

A light bulb went off in her head. They technically had a cleric after all. Surely, he had been around a birth at least once. 

“Barry, get Merle over here.”

“Taako just tried reaching him, he wasn’t answering.”

“Well, they’re all staying nearby right now. I can’t go through a rift, but you can. If you get Merle, then he can help, right?” She was trying to be as calm as possible. Maybe she could get them to draw her a bath and light some candles with soft music playing. People did that right? It seemed like a good idea. Warm water felt like the right call. “Do you have the time?”

Maybe that should’ve been her first ask when she first started laboring. However, her brain was in peak panic mode, and yeah, it was still there now, but fight or flight was kicking in or something. She was really too tired to identify it properly. Barry looked over at the clock on his nightstand, and oops. She had forgotten it was there.

“3:25” he answered, his fingers tapping on his thigh a bit. A nervous habit he always had. He was trying to calm himself down so he didn’t stress her out. Lup knew him too well though. She knew that he was absolutely losing it, probably feeling powerless since he couldn’t do anything to help his wife or kids. His forehead was creased, and his face was paler than normal, and all she wanted to do was tell him that everything was going to be all right. However, she didn’t even believe that they were. Sure, home births have been the thing for years, especially when she was born. However, by the time Barry was born, they were phasing them out a bit and switching over to hospitals. Barry was a surgery since the doctors didn’t feel like it was safe for his mom to deliver him since he was so big. She knew that he was terrified over the fact that this was all happening right now with no doctor, and nothing as a backup in case something went wrong. 

He nodded after a bit, clenching his hand that was tapping a little bit.

“Yeah, I can do that. I think I know where he’s staying anyway. You want me to grab Taako before I leave?” Instead of answering, she just nodded, already feeling another contraction coming on. Again, Barry looked torn between wanting to comfort her, and going to get Taako. She waved him off to help him with the decision, preparing herself for the oncoming pain and glancing at the clock again. 3:30. She didn’t know when her last one was, but it seemed as good a time as any to start tracking. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but decided against it as he walked out of the room and to Taako. 

The pain hit her like a truck. She groaned through it, rocking herself as best as she could on the bed and just cursing through each one.  _ Why _ ?

Just as it was finishing, the door to her room opened and her brother peaked his head in. Lup lifted her head fully. He also seemed stressed about this whole thing, wary to not fully step inside the room. 

“It’s over. You can come in.” She breathed, rubbing her belly a little bit. He tip-toed in, careful to keep his distance from her. If she hadn’t been in labor, she would’ve rolled her eyes at him for being melodramatic, but honestly, right now, she thought he was making the right call for him. “Could you do me a favor, though?”

“Yeah, anything.” He answered automatically, wringing his hands a little bit and teetering on his heels. She couldn’t help but feel a sudden overwhelming amount of love for her brother. He was trying so hard to not freak out majorly. Both of her boys were, and she couldn’t help but be so thankful for that. 

“Could you draw me a hot bath? I think it might help a little bit.” Taako nodded at that, looking very much not like himself as he turned on his hell and back out of the door. She assumed it was because he just didn’t want to be anywhere around her when she was contracting and just so miserable. Made sense she guessed. She really did just drag him into this after he was supposed to be spending the week with Kravitz as their anniversary celebration that they already had to postpone. The two of them really knew how to make an entrance. 

Lup could only imagine Kravitz pacing their hotel room right now, waiting until he heard the news. He was a little old-fashioned like that. Also, she knew that Kravitz didn’t want to be overstepping his boundaries. Even though they had been family for years and on top of that co-workers, Kravitz still didn’t like the idea of crowding. He’d much prefer to hang out on the wall for the most part as they all went at it with each other, and only adding a quick quip here and there. Lup understood. Barry was the same way in the beginning, it was hard to interrupt both Lup and Taako when they were going at it. Barry only got used to it because he was in close quarters with them for so long. Maybe one day Krav will feel more able to hop in more fully. 

Gods what she wouldn’t do to have her exercise ball with her right now. She had been using it every so often the past week, thinking that would help relieve some of the pain she was in. Lup was pretty sure that she had left it in the office from when she traded out her old desk chair for that. Fuck. She really didn’t think she could make it that far without some help. It was only across the hall, but the effort for that and the fact that she might be wrong because her pregnancy brain was really doing it to her. She really just wanted to have something else she could have her brain on. 

Her lower back was starting to get to her, and she was also realizing how thirsty she was. All that yelling was only going to bring one thing, and that was a sore throat. Fuck. She knew that her water cup was right next to her bedside, she could get up and get it. She could. She should. She will. 

Lup stood up with much difficulty from the bed, and began her sad shuffle over to her nightstand. She wondered when Barry would be back. She wondered if he managed to find Merle easily and if he had to wait for the old man to get his stuff in gear. Gods, she wished that they would hurry up. She also wishes her brother would hurry up to get the tub ready. Lup really just wanted to soak. She got to her water cup, feeling another one come on already. She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was 3:35. Those were the longest five minutes of her life. 

She managed to breathe through it this time, rocking her hips as she tried to relieve the back pain. She hoped that with her rocking her hips, it helped them come down a bit better. She had no way of knowing if one of them was breech. Oh no, what it one was breech? How would they deliver that one? She knew that with twins, it was more likely that one of them would be, but she never really thought about it all that much. Now, she had to think about it. How would they help that one? They had no access to a hospital. Please, just let them be okay and deliver safely. Please. 

She drank the water slowly, not really knowing if this was allowed, but also thinking that she needed the water. She continued to rock them as best as she was able, really hoping that this would help them. Lup really wished she could hear their hearts beating just to keep herself calm, and knowing where they were at. However, all she could really do was rub her abdomen and just hope that everything would be fine. 

She waited for her brother for 45 minutes, and with plenty of contractions to keep her company in the meantime. She wondered where in the hells he was. Did it really take this long to fill up a bathtub? Also, where was Barry? Was it really taking him this long to find Merle? Weren’t they all supposed to be at the same hotel as one another so when Lup went in for surgery, they were able to come together quickly? Then again, those were their plans, and their plans didn’t really have a blizzard in it. Their birth plan certainly didn’t include two little ones who jumped their due date to meet everyone earlier than expected. 

Her contractions were now averaging between 3-5 minutes about and were lasting longer. She was nearing time and Barry wasn’t back yet. 

Her door opened again and in came her brother and she almost yelled for joy.

“What took you so long?” 

“I had to make sure the bath water was at an appropriate temperature for you three!” He huffed a little bit as he took her forearm and started to lead her out of the room. It seemed that Taako wanted to walk her around the length of the house though, because they didn’t go into her and Barry’s bathroom, instead they carried on past it, and walked around the layout of the house a little bit. He was probably making sure she was getting her blood moving, which she could appreciate. 

“I thought the bathwater needed to be at an appropriate temperature. It’s going to be too cold by the time we finish walking this house again.” She huffed, out of breath thoroughly now. They had stopped every time she felt a contraction come on, and he let her lean on him as she groaned in pain. She was half tempted to ask him if she was already crowning, but she thought that would be too weird for him. Also, she was sure it was fine still, she was thinking of the worst case scenario that Barry misses the birth of his children. 

“Don’t worry about that. Just worry about you keeping those two in there until Barry gets back. Where is he anyway? It shouldn’t take this long to get that old man.” They stopped again as Lup put her weight on him as she began to rock her hips again as another one came on. “It really should be Barry who was doing this.”

She couldn’t agree more with him, even though before she really didn’t want him touching her. Now though, she would really appreciate him holding her as she went through this instead of her brother. She loved her brother, but Lup really just wanted her Barry to be here for this. She moaned into his shoulder, feeling it start to get really bad. Gods, where was he? Why did she have to send him to grab Merle? Why? What was going on to make them wait this long for them to come back? Did the blizzard somehow affect rifts? She didn’t think that they did. 

“I want Barry.” She hadn’t even realized she said it until Taako was trying to comfort her the best as he was able. Lup felt like a child like this, whining over not getting what she wanted. Maybe that was too harsh to herself for what she was going through. Yeah, she was going through a lot, she was allowed to whine. This was her whining free pass and if anyone told her differently she would smack the so hard upside the head. 

“You want to transfer in the tub now? I think we did enough walking. I’m honestly just going off of what those books were saying.” Taako admitted after it had passed again. She nodded, trying to breathe again. She wished she knew what time it was. It could help her calculate how much time had passed and how much walking they really managed to get done. 

“You know what time it is?”

“Uh, yeah. It’s, oh wow, yeah we did plenty of walking, it’s like, 5.” Lup let out a yell, which alarmed Taako and had him taking her by the arm more tightly. He probably was thinking she was going through it again. 

“Where  _ is _ he?” Taako for his part, seeing as she wasn’t in pain, started to move her in the direction of his and Kravitz’s room. When they had moved in, he and Kravitz had gotten the big room with the attached bathroom, seeming as Lup and Barry were only going to stay for a short while. Well, with everything that went down that first few years back together, Lup and Barry ended staying for much longer than they were intending, and now suddenly they lived here permanently. Lup couldn’t help but feel guilty over moving herself in here for good. She and Taako wanted to live separately after all, finally living their own lives that didn’t consist of them fighting to live. Lup was sure that Taako was excited to be just Taako and not because he didn’t remember her. So, she couldn’t help it but feel bad for cramping his style. Taako told her to get over herself about that and that it was fine. He could still be just Taako, because that’s who he was, and she was just Lup. They were twins sure, but they were first and foremost their own person. 

Which was something she wanted to stress to her children. Yes, they were twins, but they were also their own person. Their lives will already be so much different from hers and Taako’s. They wouldn’t just have one another, they would have a whole family of people looking out for them and being so in love with who they are. They’d have the support system that she and Taako never had, and honestly, that’s all that she could want. Her children won’t be known as just the twins. That she’ll make sure of. 

He led her through his and Kravitz’s room and into their adjoining bathroom, where she suddenly realized why it took him so long initially. He had filled the tub full of welcoming water, but around, he had lit some candles, far enough away that it wouldn’t be considered a hazard. There was an ice box on the lip of the tub with a plastic cup ready to go. On the sink, there was a bottle of champagne in ice water now and four flutes ready to go. Soft music was playing overhead which really set the mood that this was for relaxation. 

“Taaks….you didn’t have to do this.”

“I know, but I found the champagne I was saving for when you popped as I was getting the ice. Seemed like a good idea.” He tried to sound casual about it, but she knew that he was anxiously looking at her as he looked down at the timer he had set. She was sure she was due for another one at any time. “Let’s try to get you in there before your next one, kay?”

He helped her in the tub, making her take off her pants when she was in there so he didn’t have to see all that. She thanked him as he lowered her in, already feeling the warm water relax her muscles as she entered. She assumed that he had the warmer on so that it didn’t get cold as they were taking their stroll around the house. Lup breathed in deeply, putting her forearms on the lip of the tub and laying her head down on them. One moment, she was lying peacefully, and then the next she was shocked by the coldness of a wash cloth on her neck. 

“You seemed hot.” Taako shrugged. “I’m going to be back, kay? You want anything to eat?”

“No thanks.” Lup mumbled, setting her head back down on her forearms and closing her eyes. The water didn’t magically take the pain away, she still felt it, but it helped soothe her a little bit more. “And Taako?”

“Mm?”

“Thank you. Really.” Lup felt the contraction come through her once again, and she gripped her forearms with her nails. She let out a yell again, feeling it being ripped out of her out of nowhere. She was getting closer, they were coming and Barry was nowhere around.  _ “Where is he?” _

There was some ruckus outside of the room, lots of running and doors being opened. It sounded like one of their kitchen chairs were knocked over, as whoever was running through their house was banging up the walls. The door to Taako and Kravitz’s room was slammed open and then more running towards the bathroom. 

Barry entered the bathroom looking worn out. His glasses were laying even more crookedly than more on his face, in fact, they were half off his face by the time he entered the bathroom. His hair was windswept from his running, and his face flushed. He looked wildly around the bathroom, breathing heavily before he laid eyes on her. 

“We’re not too late are we?” He asked, totally out of breath. Who knows how long Barry had been running, and fuck, did he even have his inhaler on him?

“Do you see two crying little devils in this room, Barold?” Taako asked, punching him on the shoulder as he walked out. Lup noticed that he didn’t even say hi to Merle who was coming in, also out of breath. 

“You know, you wake a man up from sleep and then you make him run? Who taught you your manners, Bluejeans? Real asshole move.”

“The asshole move was not being in your room. The asshole move was being in their indoor botanical gardens,  _ Merle _ . I could’ve missed them! Even worse, Lup could’ve had them on her own!” Barry sounded beyond pissed right now, and honestly, hearing that Merle was in the botanical gardens, and probably made Barry go on a wild goose chase, she was pissed too. Here she was laboring without Barry next to her. This was a big moment for the both of them, and he could’ve missed it. Still, he was here now which was all that really mattered. They could be mad at Merle later. 

“Barry, please.” She stretched her hand out to him to grab onto, closing her eyes to try and relax herself again. She heard Barry walk over to her and hold her hand, not giving her the usual greeting he gave it. Lup knew it was because he didn’t want to push it with the physical touch, seeing how in pain she was. He was really trying to follow her lead on things. “Did you call your mom?”

“Yeah, she’s going to wait until you say she can come over to make the trip. She doesn’t want to stress you out.” Lup nodded, letting herself just breathe and nap. She had heard about this period a bit from the little talk the other birth parents said about it. The resting period. It was recommended that Lup take as many small naps as she could in between contractions. She knew that it was going to be soon. She felt it in the way her body was gearing itself up for. She had to take advantage of it. Lup didn’t know how long it lasted for, but she assumed it was different for each pregnant person. 

“All right, sis, sorry for being late an’ all that, but I’m really gonna just follow your lead on this, okay? When you feel like you need to push, you do it. I’m just here in case anything happens and for support.” Merle explained, patting her head a little bit. Lup nodded as she continued to have her eyes closed. She respected that. Lup also appreciated that he was just going to do what she felt like she needed to do. 

It wouldn’t be for another 30 minutes before she felt like she needed to push. By then, it was 5:47 and Taako had come back in with some food for the people who were hungry 20 minutes prior. Barry hadn’t let go of her hand the entire time, and didn’t complain once as she squeezed his hand so hard that she thought she heard some of his fingers pop. Still, he took it as he rubbed his thumb over her knuckles and told her how great she was doing. 

“Merle!” She felt the pressure of her body needing her to get going already. She could feel them wanting to come out, and all she could really do was obey and start to push as Merle came hustling over from the little food platter Taako had set up. Instinctively, she had moved to her knees to start pushing, crushing Barry’s hand in the process. 

“Yeah, just like that, that’s right, keep it coming.” Merle coached just as she stopped and gasped for air. She felt the pressure from everywhere as she breathed in deeply. Taako was by her side, rubbing her other arm and looking like he was about to pass out. She kept the pace going, pushing when her body told her to and really trying to focus on her breathing. Merle kept coaching her through them. She felt the burning sensation that a lot of the birth parents talked about, and damn, yeah, that was worse than any burn she’s had. She let out a shrill scream as she pushed passed it. The contraction passed and the burning was just getting worse. Lup thought her pain tolerance was pretty fine and dandy, thank you very much, but nothing had prepared her for this. There were tears streaming down her face as she was shaking her head.

“I can’t. I can’t do it.” She sobbed, trying to catch her breath as she cried. 

“Yes you can, Lup. I’ve watched you smite the Hunger and then get pummeled by em. You can do this.” She breathed in deeply as she waited for the next one, still crying as she looked at Barry. 

“Get in here.” She told her, her voice full of desperation. He wasted no time to get his pants and footwear off and get in the water with her. He was at her side, holding onto her shoulders, letting himself give her temple a quick kiss that she leaned into. 

“You’re doing great,” he told her, giving her another kiss on her temple. 

“Taako, you have towels in here, right?” Merle asked, glancing over to Taako who was looking sicker by the minute. Mutely, he nodded as he walked robotically to their towel cabinet and started pulling some and leaving them on the bathroom counter. He returned to his station next to Lup, this time taking hold of her hand. 

On her next one, she just pushed as hard as she could, letting out another scream as she felt the baby’s head be born. She was breathing heavily as the contraction passed, letting her freehand reach down and feel a bald head underneath her fingertips. She let out a shaky gasp as she looked over to Barry, a small smile on her face. The first one was almost here. 

“You guys still have the slips of paper on what everyone thought they would be?” Merle asked, preparing one towel for the delivery. 

Barry shook his head, looking stunned at the head in the water.

“We seemed to have conveniently misplaced them after the shower. Wonder where they could be.”

She continued to push until at 6:16, the baby came out of her, and all she could do was look stunned at them. They were so tiny and fragile looking, and she couldn’t help her heart as it swelled from looking at them. She moved her hand from Taako’s to scoop the baby from the water and to hold them close in her arms. Barry was right behind her, helping her scoop the little one up and placed them right on her chest, tears streaming down his face. The first one was out. The first one was here. Merle leaned over the tub, a tool in hand to clear out anything in the baby, and once he did that, the baby let out the most gorgeous cry that had Lup start crying over all over again. 

Lup looked over at Barry who had a starstruck smile on his face as he looked at the tiny baby as they cried. He tentatively caressed their head, making shushing noises at them to calm them down. 

It was short lived though as another contraction started up again, reminding her that there was still a second baby that wanted to be born. Lup handed the baby to Merle who had the towel ready for them and wrapped the little one up and handed them over to Taako. 

“If you don’t mind,  _ Uncle Taako _ , I’d really appreciate it if you take this one over to that station over there and record their weight.” Merle instructed. “And please, don’t drop the baby, your sister will kill you.” 

Taako took the baby shakily, but kept a firm hold on them as he walked over to the baby station they had set up when Merle got here. 

“All right, you two ready to be parents of two?”

This one didn’t take as long as their sibling did. Their head was already crowning after 3 minutes. It wasn’t until Merle saw the neck that he had stopped her. 

“Okay, stop right there. I’m just gonna have to make some adjustments here, okay? Everything’s going to be fine, and you’re doing great.” He instructed, moving quickly to fix what happened.

“What’s wrong?” Lup couldn’t help but go into panic mode, especially since he told her that he would only interfere if something bad was happening. 

“Nothing’s wrong, so don’t worry. I got this.” He fixed what needed to be done and nodded to her. “This one just got a little tangled up, but they’re fine now. The next time you need to push, go for it, okay?”

Lup nodded, and by 6:21 the next one was out, smaller than their sibling, but had the same beautiful cry that their sibling had after getting things cleared away. She and Barry were crying all over again as the baby laid on Lup’s chest. She couldn’t believe that this had happened. That she had delivered both of them and that they were both here and okay.

Merle took the second one and cleaned them up before walking over to Taako and handing the second baby off. Taako shared something with him that Lup couldn’t make out, instead, she was just swimming in the joy that they were both here. She leaned heavily against Barry who was now behind her, rubbing her arms and giving her kisses on her head.

“You did it.” He told her, giving her another kiss on the head. 

“Yeah,” she told him sleepily, turning her head to give him a kiss on the lips. “Sorry for being so mean to you earlier.”

“Nothing to apologize for.” He gave her another kiss for good measure that she smiled under. “Congratulations, Mom.”

“Congrats, Dad.” She couldn’t help but smile at being called that, and she could tell that Barry was also sharing the same sentiment, with how his crows feet deepened. Merle came back over and grabbed some towels and put them on the lip of the tub and on the floor.

“Okay, I want you and Bluejeans out of the tub so we can deliver that placenta, and then I want us to take a little ride over to the hospital to get both you checked out, and those two.” Merle instructed. “I can only do so much, you know.”

“You’re a  _ cleric _ , old man, your primary thing is healing!” Taako griped, marking down something on a piece of paper. “Baby Number 2 is exactly 5 pounds and 18 inches long! Baby Number 1 is 5 pounds 2 ounces and is also 18 inches. Just so the baby book knows.”

“Is there anything wrong with them?” Barry asked, concern laced in his voice and glancing over at them as they slept soundly. Lup envied that they were asleep already, but she guessed it was pretty traumatic being born. It was already pretty traumatic giving birth. 

“Other than looking like weird ass aliens? Not really. Sure the hospital will be able to see what’s up.”

“My children do not look like weird ass aliens, Taako. Take it back!” Lup argued tiredly, feeling the pressure to start delivering everything that was keeping them alive in there. She wrinkled her nose as she started to push it out. 

“Sure, sure, whatever you say.”

The placenta took a hot minute, but it was eventually out. Merle stored it properly and began to clean up the bloody mess that they had all left behind. 

“Barry, go get some new pants and get her something comfortable to wear. Nothing that’ll be too tight on her, she needs to be able to let things breathe”

“Aw, sorry, babe, I can’t wear my leather pants to the hospital!”

“Yeah, haha, okay. Laugh it up, but don’t complain when things don’t work the same down there.”

“Ew, can you please not talk about that!” Taako complained, taking one baby in hand as Merle took the other. Lup laughed softly, noticing how light headed she was getting. Huh. Black spots started to swim in her vision that she tried to blink away, but it wasn’t helping. 

“Hey, Merle? I don’t….I don’t–” she felt herself tipping back over into the tub. She heard an  _ ‘Oh shit!’  _ and a call for Barry before she blacked out.

* * *

She came to in an unfamiliar room that was way too bright and also way too cold. The sheets were scratchy and uncomfortable, and her hand felt like it had something sticking in it. Well, that’s not fun. She opened her eyes against the brightness, and for a second she really thought that the Raven Queen just let her die, until her eyes focused and she realized she was in a room. A TV was mounted on the wall that was off, and there was a clock right next to it. Lup couldn’t read it from her position, but she certainly did try before giving up and turning her head over to see there were two small bassinets in the room, both empty. She squinted her eyes at them, right, she had them early this? morning. The details were lost on her. Lup had no idea what day it was. She looked over and saw a man standing up, holding two little bundles.

Lup couldn’t help but think that he looked good like that. He really settled in quickly in his role and she could feel the flutter in her stomach start up just by looking at him. A groggy smile appeared on her face as she stared at him.

“Hey, stranger,” she croaked out. Barry looked up in alarm, and for a second she thought he was going to drop them. However, his grip held true as he stared at her, before his face morphed into that of pure adoration and love.

“And look who we have here. See, it’s the gorgeous lady I was telling you two about. Let’s go meet her, okay?” Barry cooed at them, walking over slowly with the two of them. He made it to her bed and sat in the chair that was next to her ever so carefully. Lup couldn’t help the smile that was growing on her face as she took her finger and pet one of their cheeks.

“How are they?” It was really all she cared about, as long as they were healthy and fine, she was more than okay. 

“Absolutely perfect. They were in the NICU for a couple of days, but it was really just to monitor them since they were born early.” It was the couple of days that caught her attention, if she was just waking up now, then how long was she– “4 days. The doctor’s said that you over-exerted yourself and your body just went into overdrive and just shut down when it didn’t have anything else. They also said by the sound of what I told them that you had been in labor for a week.”

A full week….that made sense for the pain. But, then, why did they say that she was fine and didn’t need to worry about it?

“Gods damn.” She mumbled. She missed 4 days with them. That was such important bonding time that she had just missed out on. Fuck.

“Yeah. The most important thing right now is to make sure you’re okay. They want to monitor you a bit longer before discharge.” Barry explained to her. He looked down at the two little ones again and back at her. “Well, Lup, I’d like to introduce you to our daughters.”

Lup’s eyes widened at that, a smile spreading across her face. 

“Holy shit? No way!”

“Yeah, Ma’s going to flip when she finds out. You thought how she reacted to them being twins was over the top, just wait until she finds out she has granddaughters. There hasn’t been a girl born in the Bluejeans family in  _ years _ .” He explained, looking at the two proudly. 

“She doesn’t know yet?”

“She knows that they were born, but I didn’t tell her that part because you didn’t know yet. The only ones who know are Merle, Taako, our nurses and our doctor.” He explained, smiling down at them. Lup looked at them, feeling her smile just spread even further. 

“Holy shit. Barry, we did that.”

“ _ You _ did that. I just helped get them in.” He joked. She scoffed at that and rolled her eyes at him, crossing her arms over her chest as best as she could. Her boobs hurt, she noted, they were super uncomfortable, and felt like they were stretched to their limit. “Hey. I love you. And thank you for this. Lup, thank you so much.”

“I love you, too.” She smiled, pressing her lips together to form a kissy face for him to kiss her. He pressed a gentle one to her lips that she smiled into. “Thank  _ you _ so much, my love.”

* * *

“What about Micah and Harper?” Lup called out, pouring over a list, nursing one baby as best as she was able. She had been trying to get this one to latch for the past 10 minutes, but she seemed to be having a hard time latching. Latching had been giving them difficulty since Lup had tried breastfeeding. It had led to her crying on the floor sometimes as she begged for a bottle. It also didn’t help that her milk took forever to come in even though they felt engorged and ready to pop. “Bear, I don’t think she’s going to take, can you get me a bottle?”

“Huh.” Barry answered, opening the kitchen cabinets and grabbing a bottle as he gently rocked the baby he was wearing in his swing. He looked super good looking like that. 

“You don’t like them.”

“It’s not that, they just don’t fit them.” He answered as he prepared the bottle. They had been going at it about names for a week now, and it was super embarrassing going to their 1 week appointment with their names being Baby A and Baby B still. She doesn’t think they’d be able to live that one down for a while. “I don’t know. Unisex was a good idea for a bit until they were born. They just don’t fit any of the names.”

“You have a point.” Lup agreed, crumpling up her paper and tossing it to the side as Barry set down the bottle in front of her. “Okay, lovey, we’re going to try breastfeeding again later, right now, you just need to eat.” 

Lup pulled the baby away from her boob and put her shirt down before grabbing the bottle and gently putting it in the baby’s mouth. The baby immediately took to it, suckling down on the milk as fast as she was able. 

“You know, maybe I should just pump. It’ll save us gold from buying formula and my boobs will finally feel like they won’t pop off.” She told him, shifting the baby a little bit to be more comfortable. “I just can’t believe that we got their middle names before their first names, and all it took was Taako talking about our “special” interests.”

“Ah yes, Ulna and Octavia. Our very own special interests.” Lup let out a groan and dipped her head back a little bit. 

“Why is naming a person so hard?” She whined before turning to Barry. “Okay, rapid fire, name some names off and if I like any of them we can discuss.”

“Okay, uhh, Harlow, Odette, Isolde, Avalon, Agatha, Constance, Esther, Hester–”

“Babe, I’m stopping you right there.  _ Hester?” _

“I panicked, okay! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t prepared for girls.” He admitted, he looked down at Baby B sleeping away against him, all decked out in green. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, don’t get me wrong, but damn.”

“Do you have a list of names?” She asked, pulling another list she had waiting in front of her using a mage hand. It was her  _ ‘Super girly names because I want to indulge _ ’ list. Barry hummed in response, grabbing another list from off of the table and handed it to her. She handed her list off to him. She read through the list and stopped on a particular name that had her mhmming. “Babe, where was this on your other lists?”

She gestured it with her chin as her mage hand lifted it for Barry to see. He looked at the name, a shock of crimson creeping up to her face. 

“Oh, that was, huh, that was a self indulgent name. I put it down last minute because I wanted an even number and I just really liked it.” He explained.

“Huh,” she bit her lip a little bit as she looked down at the baby feeding. “ _ Ordelia _ .”

The name felt right coming out. Plus, she could tell it had a lot of cute possible nicknames. That was always important. The baby at the sound of the name, released the bottle and gave what looked like a small smile to it. 

“Barry! The baby smiled! She heard the name and she smiled! Holy shit, I think she likes it!” Lup gasped. She knew it was probably just a reflex, or maybe even gas. Mostly likely it was gas, but also, her children were smart. Of course they were going to be leagues above the rest. “Write down that she had her first smile today! We need to put it in her baby book later!”

“On it!” Barry said, beaming proudly at his little girl. Of course their children would be smart, they were offspring of them. “So, Ordelia?”

“Ordelia Ulna Bluejeans. Sounds legit.” It sounded right which was what really mattered. “Your name is Ordelia, isn’t that right, baby girl?” 

Lup set her bottle down and traded it with a burping cloth that she put over her shoulder and got ready to burp her.

“What about sweet pea?” Lup asked, rubbing circles in  _ Ordelia’s _ back. Barry hummed in response as he scanned her list.

“ _ Tesla?” _

“I hope to the gods you’re not seriously thinking that one. It was 1 am and I was trying to get sweet pea to sleep!”

“Oh no, I was just surprised. Let’s see.” Barry looked at the list again, eyebrows pinching a little bit at a name. “Seraphine….where did this one come from?”

“I think I was reading something? I don’t know, I just saw it and liked it.”

“I’ve always liked the name if I was being honest. Thought it was cool.” He admitted as he looked down at the baby sleeping away in her little swing. 

“Do you think it fits her?”

“Yeah. Do you?”

“Fuck yeah I do, our kids are going to be the coolest.” Lup laughed, feeling like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. “How did that take us so long to decide on?”

“I have no idea, but my Mom is going to be ecstatic. She’s been itching to send out those birth announcements and just needed the names. Huh, lil Seraphine Octavia Bluejeans.” He paused a little bit. “Do you think it’s too much? It seems like a really powerful name for such a small baby.”

“Oh yeah, people are going to need a warning about who they’re messing with. She’ll fuck them up in the future!” Lup laughed, tilting her head away a little bit as Ordelia spat up a bit. “Thanks, Dels.”

The front door opened and Taako presented himself in all his weirdly put on designer clothes. She didn’t understand how he made them look good, but she would never tell that to his face.

“Hello, Uncle Taako’s Lil Angels, did your parents finally pick names out for you? If not, I have toys here that’ll make up for their indecisiveness! They did take 50 years to get together!”

“47!”

“Hey!”

“Whatever! My inquiry still stands.” Taako pressed, pushing his sunglasses up to the top of his head, eyebrows raised. 

“In fact we have. Taako, we would like to introduce to you to Ordelia Ulna Bluejeans.” Lup said, shifting Ordelia back in her arms and kissing her forehead.

“And Seraphine Octavia Bluejeans.” Barry finished, taking out Seraphine from her swing and putting her in his arms as though she were the most precious thing he had ever seen. 

“Well fucking finally! I was about to name them Taako 2 and 3. Well, I think it’s Uncle Taako’s turn to take care of his nieces as their mom and dad take a little break, huh you little devils?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The little devils are here! Meet Ordelia and Seraphine! Two kids that will make me run for my money. 
> 
> Thank you to those who have left kudos and your kind comments! They mean so much to me!

**Author's Note:**

> You know when u write something that's supposed to be a one-shot but then you stay up until 10 am for this one idea and now you're stuck with writing more? Yeah. Anyway, welcome to my blupbabies!
> 
> A huge shout out to @Argonaut--keen for betaing and for editing. I love you.
> 
> Also! Huge shout out to those of you who read this! I hope to pick up on a schedule eventually since I apparently thrive off of those. I'm really just excited now to expose my blupkids because I've been thinking about them for almost a year now and....zoinks. Thank you for reading!
> 
> If you want to perhaps hear updates about this fic and hear me scream into a void (or u just want to see me talk about my dnd character on loop because that's all I do) you can follow me @MoonSympathizer on Tumblr!
> 
> Hope everyone is doing well and I wish everyone a happy New Year if you celebrate it!


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